Question

There is a sharepoint list which has 2 columns about date:

1. SchedulingEndDate (can be null)
2. NewsDate (always has value)

I have to get 30 news from that list with this requirements:

1. if SchedulingEndDate is null, check if (today > NewsDate)
2. if SchedulingStartDate is not null, check if (today >= NewsDate &&
   today <= SchedulingEndDate)

This is what i wrote:

public static IList<NewsPage> GetNews(int maxNews)
{
    var list = listNews.Select(p => p).
    Where(p => (DateTime)p.NewsDate <= DateTime.Now).CustomWhere().
    OrderByDescending(p => p.NewsDate).Take(maxNews).AsQueryable();
    news = list.ToList();
}

public static IQueryable<NewsPage> CustomWhere(this IQueryable<NewsPage> newsList)
{
    return newsList.Where(p => (p.SchedulingEndDate != null 
    && (DateTime)p.SchedulingEndDate >= DateTime.Now));
}

As expected, it only returns the rows where SchedulingEndDate is not null.

What do you suggest me to do?

Answer 1

Based on your requirements, I think a Where() clause like this, despite being very ugly, should do the trick:

   list.Where(p => (p.SchedulingEndDate == null && DateTime.Now > p.NewsDate)
                            || (p.SchedulingEndDate != null && p.SchedulingStartDate != null && (DateTime.Now > p.NewsDate && DateTime.Now < p.SchedulingEndDate)));

You could break it into its own function to clean it up a bit.