Question

I am trying to run this code:

ItemTaxonomy iTaxonomy = from itemTaxonomy in connection.ItemTaxonomy
                         where itemTaxonomy.Item.ID == itemView.ID
                         orderby itemTaxonomy.Taxonomy.Name
                         select itemTaxonomy;

When I compiled it I get the error:

Cannot implicitly convert type
'System.Linq.IOrderedQueryable<Website.Models.ItemTaxonomy>' to
'Website.Models.ItemTaxonomy'. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)

I believe the issue is with orderby itemTaxonomy.Taxonomy.Name but I am just trying to order by the name of Taxonomy items instead of their IDs. Is there a way to do that?

Answer 1

No, the problem is that the result is a sequence whereas your variable is a single item.

Given that you’re expressing ordering, you must be expecting multiple values – so what do you want to do with them? Options:

• Use First():

  ItemTaxonomy iTaxonomy = (from itemTaxonomy in connection.ItemTaxonomy
                            where itemTaxonomy.Item.ID == itemView.ID
                            orderby itemTaxonomy.Taxonomy.Name
                            select itemTaxonomy).First();
  

  This will return the ItemTaxonomy with the earliest name out of all the ones with the appropriate item ID.

• Change your variable type:

  IEnumerable<ItemTaxonomy> taxonomies = 
      from itemTaxonomy in connection.ItemTaxonomy
      where itemTaxonomy.Item.ID == itemView.ID
      orderby itemTaxonomy.Taxonomy.Name
      select itemTaxonomy;
  

  Now you’ve got a sequence of taxonomies to deal with, instead of a single item.