Question

I am having an issue with getting a Multiple search working with a IQueryable.Where Clause using the AND operator. I know that the problem is when a parameter is blank or null it is searching for a “” with the other parameter and not returning results but I don’t want to have to go through an extended and ridiculously nested if to check for nulls or blanks on 8 parameters. I have googled this for days, the OR works obviously but the AND condition returns nothing.

albums = albums.Where(a => a.CA_AlbumName.ToUpper().Contains(searchName.ToUpper()) && 
                           a.CA_AlbumURL.ToUpper().Contains(searchURL.ToUpper()));

The above works if both parameters are not blank but returns nothing if one of them is. I have tried building the where based on not null like below but same results:

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchName))
{
    albums = albums.Where(a => a.CA_AlbumName.ToUpper().Contains(searchName.ToUpper()));
}
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchURL))
{
    albums = albums.Where(a => a.CA_AlbumURL.ToUpper().Contains(searchURL.ToUpper()));
}    

Answer 1

If I understand your requirement right, the following one should work:

  albums = albums.Where(a => 
      (
          string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchName) || 
          a.CA_AlbumName.ToUpper().Contains(searchName.ToUpper())
      ) && 
      (
          string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchURL) || 
          a.CA_AlbumURL.ToUpper().Contains(searchURL.ToUpper())
      )
  );

@James is right. The updated code is here:

  var isSearchNameNullOrEmpty = string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchName);
  var isSearchURLNullOrEmpty = string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchURL);    

  albums = albums.Where(a => 
      (
          isSearchNameNullOrEmpty || 
          a.CA_AlbumName.ToUpper().Contains(searchName.ToUpper())
      ) && 
      (
          isSearchURLNullOrEmpty || 
          a.CA_AlbumURL.ToUpper().Contains(searchURL.ToUpper())
      )
  );