Select multiple records based on list of Id's with linq

Question

I have a list containing Id's of my UserProfile table. How can i select all UserProfiles based on the list of Id's i got in a var using LINQ?

var idList = new int[1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
var userProfiles = _dataContext.UserProfile.Where(......);

I got stuck right here. I can do this using for loops etc. But I'd rather do this with LINQ.

Answer 1

You can use Contains() for that. It will feel a little backwards when you're really trying to produce an IN clause, but this should do it:

var userProfiles = _dataContext.UserProfile
                               .Where(t => idList.Contains(t.Id));

I'm also assuming that each UserProfile record is going to have an int Id field. If that's not the case you'll have to adjust accordingly.

Answer 2

Solution with .Where and .Contains has complexity of O(N square). Simple .Join should have a lot better performance (close to O(N) due to hashing). So the correct code is:

_dataContext.UserProfile.Join(idList, up => up.ID, id => id, (up, id) => up);

And now result of my measurement. I generated 100 000 UserProfiles and 100 000 ids. Join took 32ms and .Where with .Contains took 2 minutes and 19 seconds! I used pure IEnumerable for this testing to prove my statement. If you use List instead of IEnumerable, .Where and .Contains will be faster. Anyway the difference is significant. The fastest .Where .Contains is with Set<>. All it depends on complexity of underlying coletions for .Contains. Look at this post to learn about linq complexity.Look at my test sample below:

    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var userProfiles = GenerateUserProfiles();
        var idList = GenerateIds();
        var stopWatch = new Stopwatch();
        stopWatch.Start();
        userProfiles.Join(idList, up => up.ID, id => id, (up, id) => up).ToArray();
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed .Join time: {0}", stopWatch.Elapsed);
        stopWatch.Restart();
        userProfiles.Where(up => idList.Contains(up.ID)).ToArray();
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed .Where .Contains time: {0}", stopWatch.Elapsed);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static IEnumerable<int> GenerateIds()
    {
       // var result = new List<int>();
        for (int i = 100000; i > 0; i--)
        {
            yield return i;
        }
    }

    private static IEnumerable<UserProfile> GenerateUserProfiles()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
        {
            yield return new UserProfile {ID = i};
        }
    }

Console output:

Elapsed .Join time: 00:00:00.0322546

Elapsed .Where .Contains time: 00:02:19.4072107