Question

I’m just learning how to use .net and mvc4 and I have a problem. I have no idea how to show only the first 5(or any number) rows in a table. This is how I’m currently sending my information to the view.

public ActionResult ActiveCampaigns()
{
    var campaigns = db.ActiveCampaigns.ToList();
    return View(campaigns);
}

Thanks 🙂

Update:
Thanks for the quick responses! So simple!

db.ActiveCampaigns.Take(5).ToList()

I searched high and low and couldn’t find this, my google-fu must be off. Thanks again!

Answer 1

The basic approach would be

 var campaigns = db.ActiveCampaigns.Take(5).ToList();

But depending on what type of Context db is, this might fail. Skip() and Take() are not always available or allowed on all IEnumrable-derived interfaces. In that case read the error. Usually you can fix it in two ways:

 var campaigns = db.ActiveCampaigns.ToList().Take(5);  // expensive with many Campaigns

or, when you have a convenient sort-criterium:

 var campaigns = db.ActiveCampaigns.OrderByDescending(c => c.Date).Take(5).ToList();