VB LINQ - Take one random row from each group

问题:

I'm trying to get one random row from each group of rows. I'm trying to use LINQ, but I'm not sure if that's the right approach. I'd like a Dictionary of Key/Name pairs.

My table is as such:

AnswerGroup     AnswerKey   AnswerName
---------------------------------------------
1               1           Yes
1               2           No
2               1           Never
2               2           A little bit
2               3           Mostly
2               4           Always
3               1           White
3               2           African American
3               3           Hispanic
3               4           Asian or Pacific Islander

For each AnswerGroup I need to choose a random Key/Name pair.

I have the beginnings of a LINQ query, but frankly I'm lost as I don't understand LINQ grouping and how to add an Enumerable.Take(1) to the group.

    Dim answerGroup As String = "AnswerGroup"
    Dim answerKey As String = "AnswerKey"
    Dim answerName As String = "AnswerName"

    Dim query = _
        From rows As DataRow In surveyAnswerKeys.Rows _
        Order By rows(answerGroup) _
        Group By questionSortKey = rows(answerGroup) _
        Into questionGroups = Group 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

---

Edit: I can expand the following query in the debugger to see an In Memory Query that produces a series of DataRows. When I hover over questionGroups it says it's a IEnumerable(Of Object). When I try to run that query into a list or DataTable I get error:

"Public member 'ToTable' on type 'WhereSelectEnumerableIterator(Of VB$AnonymousType_0(Of Object,IEnumerable(Of Object)),Object)' not found."

    Dim answerGroup As String = "QuestionSortKey"
    Dim answerNo As String = "AnswerNo"
    Dim surveyDefinitionNo As String = "Pk_SurveyDefinitionNo"

    Dim query = _
        From rows In surveyAnswerKeys.Rows _
        Where rows(answerNo) IsNot Nothing _
        Order By Guid.NewGuid() _
        Group By questionSortKey = rows(answerGroup) _
        Into questionGroups = Group _
        Select questionGroups.First()

    Dim randomAnswerNos As DataTable = query.ToTable

回答1:

One quick way to shuffle items is to sort by a "random" value - Guid.NewGuid() usually works well enough. Then just pull the first row from each group:

Dim query = _
    From rows As DataRow In surveyAnswerKeys.Rows _
    Order By Guid.NewGuid() _
    Group By questionSortKey = rows(answerGroup) _
    Into questionGroups = Group _
    Select questionGroups.First() 

回答2:

Linq can't be used to pull a random row. I'd suggest you store all of the rows in a table and manually loop through each group. Then based on the number of rows in each group, generate a random number and pick that row. Only use LINQ to do the query and retrieve the results.