Question

Is it possible to make LinQ to SQL read and understand a pure SQL query such as the following?

SELECT * from myTable

My boss asked me to write directly to database the pure SQL querys in a certain table and this table will have a field named “typeOfSelect”, for example.

And, in my application, I will have to read this field “typeOfSelect” and make LinQ understands what that means.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the ExecuteCommand and ExecuteQuery methods on the DataContext.

var db = new MyDataContext();
IEnumerable<Table1> result = db.ExecuteQuery<Table1>("SELECT * FROM Table1");
db.ExecuteCommand("UPDATE Tabel1 SET Column1 = 'Foo'");

ExecuteQuery will work with any object that has property names that match the column names of the table. ExecuteCommand is used for SQL commands that don’t return a result set.

Another way would be to use the Connection.CreateCommand() method on a DataContext which will return a DbCommand object. Then you simply set the CommandText property with the SQL you want to execute.

DbCommand command = myDataContext.Connection.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM Table1";

try {
    command.Connection.Open();
    DbDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader();
    // do something usefull with the reader like creating a DataTable
} finally {
    command.Connection.Close();
    command.Dispose();
}

You can also look at this MSDN link for some other examples.