Question

List<LICENSE> licenseList = context.LICENSE.Where(l => ( string.IsNullOrEmpty(licenseID) || l.LICENSE_ID.Contains(licenseID) ) && ( string.IsNullOrEmpty(hardwareID) || l.HARDWARE_ID.Contains(hardwareID) ) ).Take(10).ToList();

This is my current solution for handling more than one searchbox. Its a search function that combines 2 or more textfields in to a search. So my questions are: Is this an ok way to filter out the passed searchstrings. And how do i use it when the queries are decimals instead of strings? Thanks

Answer 1

Your example is perfectly fine.

With regards to it being decimals:

1. If it is a nullable type, then you first have to check if it has a value, and if it has that it is not the default value for a decimal which is 0.

2. If it is not a nullable type, then all you have to do is check that it is/is not == to 0 which is the default type. I always just check to make sure it’s greater than zero, based on the assumption that a license won’t be negative.

I am going to assume that it’s not a nullable type as it seems to be an inline declared var, so here is a formatted example for decimal:

List<LICENSE> licenseList = 
    context.LICENSE.Where(l => licenseID == 0 || l.LICENSE_ID.Contains(licenseID))
                   .Where(l => hardwareID == 0 || l.HARDWARE_ID.Contains(hardwareID))
                   .Take(10)
                   .ToList(); 

Interesting thing to note, if you don’t know the default type of a field, you can always do

licenseID == default(decimal)