Question

I have 2 tables which looks like this:

ARTICLES TABLE:

and the output should look like this:

How can I accomplish this using both sql query (i’m using sql server 2005) and using linq to sql query ?

BTW i’m using sql server 2005, asp.net with c# in Visual studio 2008.

Please help me

Thanks in anticipation

Answer 1

Update: Added Linq experssion that can be used if you require an OUTER join.

---

INNER JOIN

For an inner join ie. only get back the articles that have been bought at least once, you can use the following.

LINQ 2 SQL

from a in Articles
join c in CustomersRecords on 
     a.Article_Name equals c.Article_Name 
group a by new {a.SNo, a.Article_Name} into g
select new 
       {
         SNo = g.Key.SNo, 
         Article_Name = g.Key.Article_Name, 
         Total_Items_Bought = g.Count()
       }

The above translates to the following SQL

SELECT COUNT(*) AS [Total_Items_Bought], [t0].[SNo], [t0].[Article_Name]
FROM [Articles] AS [t0]
INNER JOIN [CustomersRecord] AS [t1] ON [t0].[Article_Name] = [t1].[Article_Name]
GROUP BY [t0].[SNo], [t0].[Article_Name]

Which when cleaned-up a little gives you

SELECT a.SNo, 
       a.Article_Name, 
       COUNT(*) AS Total_Items_Bought
  FROM Articles AS a
 INNER JOIN CustomersRecord AS c ON a.Article_Name = c.Article_Name
 GROUP BY a.SNo, a.Article_Name

---

LEFT OUTER JOIN

For a left outer join ie. get back all articles event those that have never been bought, you can use the following.

LINQ 2 SQL

from a in Articles
join c in CustomersRecords on 
     a.Article_Name equals c.Article_Name into apc
select new 
       {
         SNo = a.SNo, 
         Article_Name = a.Article_Name, 
         Total_Items_Bought = apc.Count()
       }

This translates to the following SQL

 SELECT [t0].[SNo], [t0].[Article_Name], (
    SELECT COUNT(*)
    FROM [CustomersRecord] AS [t1]
    WHERE [t0].[Article_Name] = [t1].[Article_Name]
    ) AS [Total_Items_Bought]
 FROM [Articles] AS [t0]