Question

I am going to trash Entity Framework 5! I have spent two days to find solution from web but found nothing!

I tried a simple left join from table Artworks and EndValidities with the input IDFondazione as 2620

var query = from art in db.Artworks
  join endVal in db.EndValidities.DefaultIfEmpty() 
  on art.ID_Dtsl equals endVal.IDdtsl 
  where art.ID_Cdgs == IDFondazione
  select new SchedaOpera()
  {
    Cdscheda = art.Cdscheda,
    Confirmed = art.FGconfermata,
    DSimmagine = art.DSimmgine,
    Dtsf = art.Dtsf,
    Dtsi = art.Dtsi,
    Dtsl = endVal != null ? endVal.Dtsl : "",
    Iscr = art.Iscr,
    Misa = art.Misa,
    Ldcn = art.Ldcn,
    Ldcs = art.Ldcs,
    Misd = art.Misd,
    Misl = art.Misl,
    Misn = art.Misn,
    Misp = art.Misp,
    Miss = art.Miss,
    Pvcc = art.Pvcc,
    Pvcp = art.Pvcp,
    Sgtt = art.Sgtt
  };

The marvellous entity framework continues to produce

SELECT [Extent1].[ID_Dtsl] AS [ID_Dtsl], [Extent1].[CDscheda] AS [CDscheda], 
[Extent1].[FGconfermata] AS [FGconfermata], 
[Extent1].[DSimmagine] AS [DSimmagine], 
[Extent1].[DS_DTSF] AS [DS_DTSF], 
[Extent1].[DS_DTSI] AS [DS_DTSI], 
CASE WHEN (cast(1 as bit) <> cast(0 as bit)) THEN [Extent2].[DSdtsl] ELSE N'_' END AS [C1], 
[Extent1].[DS_ISCR] AS [DS_ISCR], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISA] AS [NR_MISA], 
[Extent1].[DS_LDCN] AS [DS_LDCN], 
[Extent1].[DS_LDCS] AS [DS_LDCS], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISD] AS [NR_MISD], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISL] AS [NR_MISL], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISN] AS [NR_MISN], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISP] AS [NR_MISP], 
[Extent1].[NR_MISS] AS [NR_MISS], 
[Extent1].[FGpubblicata] AS [FGpubblicata], 
[Extent1].[DS_PVCC] AS [DS_PVCC], 
[Extent1].[DS_PVCP] AS [DS_PVCP], 
[Extent1].[DS_SGTT] AS [DS_SGTT]
FROM  [dbo].[TPD_OPERE] AS [Extent1]
INNER JOIN [dbo].[TSA_DTSL] AS [Extent2] ON [Extent1].[ID_Dtsl] = [Extent2].[IDdtsl]
WHERE [Extent1].[CD_CDGS] = '2620'

Answer 1

DefaultIfEmpty in Entity Framework only works on navigation properties. Otherwise you should use GroupJoin, which in comprehensive syntax is achieved by join … into. See this excellent post for more details.

So your query could be (GroupJoin):

from art in db.Artworks
join endVal in db.EndValidities on art.ID_Dtsl equals endVal.IDdtsl
into g // can be any name
where art.ID_Cdgs == IDFondazione
...

The difference is the statement selects art objects and a collection of endVal objects per art object. So the Dtsl property should be a Select on endVal.Dtsl, producing a collection of Dtsl values. The collection can be empty (zero elements), which represents the outer join.

Or, if there is navigation property Artwork.EndValidities:

from art in db.Artworks
from endVal in art.EndValidities.DefaultIfEmpty() 
...