Question

I am having trouble with MVC3 framework and extracting specific data from my database:

The following ActionResult contains a string called searchString and is a Directors Name, I want to use the search string to retrieve data that matches the name and pass it to the view so that it can be displayed:

    public ActionResult Index(string searchString)
    {
        var director = from d in db.Directors select d;

        director = director.Where(searchString == d.Name);

        return View(director);
    }

The Directors name is stored in the database as Director.Name.

How can I retrieve the diretor who has the name == searchString?

Answer 1

Your query could potentially match multiple rows:

public ActionResult Index(string searchString)
{
    var directors = 
        from d in db.Directors 
        where d.Name == searchString
        select d;
    return View(directors);
}

and your view could now be strongly typed to IEnumerable<Director>:

@model IEnumerable<Director>
@foreach (var director in Model)
{
    <div>@item.Name</div>
}

If you wanted to get only a single director you could use the FirstOrDefault method:

var director = 
    (from d in db.Directors 
     where d.Name == searchString
     select d
    ).FirstOrDefault();

This will return the first row of the resultset or null if no results matched your query.