Question

LINQ to Entity Framework 4.0. SQL Server.

I’m trying to return a list of objects and one of the columns in the database is varchar(255) and contains dates. I’m trying to cast the value to datetime, but I haven’t found the solution to that yet.

Example:

    List<MyObject> objects = (from c in context.my_table
                              where c.field_id == 10
                              select new MyObject()
                              {
                                  MyDate = c.value // This is varchar, want it to be datetime
                              }).ToList();

Is this not possible?

Update. This is LINQ to Entity. When trying to convert to DateTime I get:

LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method 'System.DateTime ToDateTime(System.String)' method, and this method cannot be translated into a store expression.

Answer 1

The answer is it’s not currently possible with Entity Framework. With LINQ itself it is, just not supported with Entity Framework.