Question

I’m writing a report and loading the data to display as soon as the report loads using LINQ.

summaryData = from summary in _entity.Summary
              // some constraints here
              select new
              {
                  summary.payment_category_desc,
                  summary.payment_due_amt,
                  summary.currency_desc
              };            

I need to consume these results later in a different event(the PrintDetail), in a way that I can , for instance, say:

string name = summaryData[currentIndex].payment_category_desc

Basically what I need is to find how to store the LINQ results in a global variable that I can later enumerate. I’ve tried IQueriable and it wont let me. I’m also trying to avoid having to create a class with three members in order to be able to use ToList().

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Edit To be honest, I only just noticed that you were using an anonymous types. As you already know by now, there is no way you can get an anon-type outside your method. However, you can use a C# 4.0 Tuple<>

The following will work when summaryData is passed/defined outside you current method:

summaryData = from summary in _entity.Summary
          // some constraints here
          select new Tuple<string, DateTime, decimal>
          {
              summary.payment_category_desc,
              summary.payment_due_amt,
              summary.currency_desc
          };            

---

Whatever it is, if it is a collection/query result, IEnumerable<T> will work

Be sure to think whether you need to convert to a list (cache the result) with .ToList() first.
If you don’t the original enumerator will get executed multiple times, which could be a (performance) issue. Consider when the enumerator accesses a file that is not longer opened, accessible etc.