Question

I have implemented a paging routine using skip and take. It works great, but I need the total number of records in the table prior to calling Take and Skip.

I know I can submit 2 separate queries.

1. Get Count
2. Skip and Take

But I would prefer not to issue 2 calls to LINQ.

How can I return it in the same query (e.g. using a nested select statement)?

Previously, I used a paging technique in a stored procedure. I returned the items by using a temporary table, and I passed the count to an output parameter.

Answer 1

I’m sorry, but you can’t. At least, not in a pretty way.

You can do it in an unpretty way, but I don’t think you like that:

var query = from e in db.Entities where etc etc etc;

var pagedQuery = 
    from e in query.Skip(pageSize * pageNumber).Take(pageSize)
    select new
    {
        Count = query.Count(),
        Entity = e
    };

You see? Not pretty at all.