Linq results into a datatable

Question

 

Is it possible to convert a Linq result to a datatable?

I've seen numerous re fences to a method called "CopyToDataTable()" but it doesn't show up in my intellisence, do I have to import something different to gain access to this?

 

For the time being I've manually made a datatable and iterated through each Linq result and placed it in the datatable which can't be very efficient, is there a better way?

 

Thanks

Ed

Answer 1

Ed,

 

If your LINQ query selects a DataRow, you can use CopyToDataTable to move the results into another DataTable. If you are doing any sort of projection, you'll need to manually copy over the results. I'm going to have a blog post in the next few weeks that shows how to do this in detail.

 

Some information to get you started:

http://blogs.msdn.com/erickt/archive/2007/08/24/linq-to-dataset-data-binding.aspx

 

Thanks,

Erick

http://blogs.msdn.com/erickt/archive/2007/08/24/linq-to-dataset-data-binding.aspx

Answer 2

 

Thanks Erick,

 

What I really wanted to use Linq for SQL to interogate a database and then for convenience copy the Linq results into a datatable. I've done a simple for each statement to do this manually but thought there may have been a more optimal way built in.

 

Ed

Answer 3

 

Ed,

 

While there are some good examples of how to do this out there, there is nothing built in. See the following link for a way to do this in your own code.

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/aconrad/archive/2007/09/07/science-project.aspx

 

Thanks,

Erick

Answer 4

 

Thanks for the advice Erick, I think I'll just have to loop through the items to build a datatable manually if I need to do this.

 

Ed