Question

Simply put, how can I do something like:

Select all Departments together with 2 of its latest Staff.

I don’t need all staff loaded, just 2.

Note: I need lazyloading enabled so that staffdetails is still accessible if needed.

Answer 1

EF doesn’t allow filtering / ordering or limiting number of returned records on navigation property in eager loading. You must use projection to anonymous type or custom type:

var data = from d in context.Departments
           select new 
              {
                  Department = d,
                  Staffs = d.Staff.OrderBy(...).Take(2)
              };