Question

Just wondering if this is the most efficient method of doing this? is there a way of having all the linq within one statement instead of calling a method, like a subselect or something?

newEmployee = (from emp
               in db.employees
               select new 
               {
                   a.EmployeeID,
                   a.Username,
                   Status = emp.GetEmployeeCurrentStatus(a.Username)
               }).ToList();

This is the GetEmployeeCurrentStatus which returns the status of the employee:

 public string GetEmployeeCurrentStatus(string username)
        {
            using (Entities db = new Entities())
            {
                var times = (from d in db.TimeTables
                             where d.DateTime == DateTime.Today &&
                             d.Employee.Username == username
                             select d)
                             .OrderByDescending(d => d.TimeID).FirstOrDefault();

                return (x.ClockOut == null ? "IN" : "OUT");                                
            }
        }

Answer 1

how about:

newEmployee = (db.employees.Select(emp => new
                  {
                      emp.EmployeeID,
                      emp.Username,
                      Status = db.TimeTables
                        .Where(d => d.Employee.Username == emp.Username
                          && d.DateTime == DateTime.Today)
                          .Select(x => x.ClockOut == null ? "IN" : "OUT")
                          .FirstOrDefault()
                  })).ToList();

Your attempt may appear cleaner and is functionally ok. However, it is firing up a secondary db call. This will be bad for scalability and performance. The version i’ve posted uses the same initial db connection and will make the join 1-1. This will result in tighter, faster queries as well as lower resource usage.