LEFT OUTER JOIN in LINQ

Question

How to perform left outer join in C# LINQ to objects without using join-on-equals-into clauses? Is there any way to do that with where clause? Correct problem: For inner join is easy and I have a solution like this

List<JoinPair> innerFinal = (from l in lefts from r in rights where l.Key == r.Key
                             select new JoinPair { LeftId = l.Id, RightId = r.Id})

but for left outer join I need a solution. Mine is something like this but it's not working

List< JoinPair> leftFinal = (from l in lefts from r in rights
                             select new JoinPair { 
                                            LeftId = l.Id, 
                                            RightId = ((l.Key==r.Key) ? r.Id : 0
                                        })

where JoinPair is a class:

public class JoinPair { long leftId; long rightId; }

Answer 1

Here's an example if you need to join more than 2 tables:

from d in context.dc_tpatient_bookingd
join bookingm in context.dc_tpatient_bookingm 
     on d.bookingid equals bookingm.bookingid into bookingmGroup
from m in bookingmGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()
join patient in dc_tpatient
     on m.prid equals patient.prid into patientGroup
from p in patientGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()

Ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17142392/2343

Answer 2

class Program
{
    List<Employee> listOfEmp = new List<Employee>();
    List<Department> listOfDepart = new List<Department>();

    public Program()
    {
        listOfDepart = new List<Department>(){
            new Department { Id = 1, DeptName = "DEV" },
            new Department { Id = 2, DeptName = "QA" },
            new Department { Id = 3, DeptName = "BUILD" },
            new Department { Id = 4, DeptName = "SIT" }
        };


        listOfEmp = new List<Employee>(){
            new Employee { Empid = 1, Name = "Manikandan",DepartmentId=1 },
            new Employee { Empid = 2, Name = "Manoj" ,DepartmentId=1},
            new Employee { Empid = 3, Name = "Yokesh" ,DepartmentId=0},
            new Employee { Empid = 3, Name = "Purusotham",DepartmentId=0}
        };

    }
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Program ob = new Program();
        ob.LeftJoin();
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private void LeftJoin()
    {
        listOfEmp.GroupJoin(listOfDepart.DefaultIfEmpty(), x => x.DepartmentId, y => y.Id, (x, y) => new { EmpId = x.Empid, EmpName = x.Name, Dpt = y.FirstOrDefault() != null ? y.FirstOrDefault().DeptName : null }).ToList().ForEach
            (z =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Empid:{0} EmpName:{1} Dept:{2}", z.EmpId, z.EmpName, z.Dpt);
            });
    }
}

class Employee
{
    public int Empid { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int DepartmentId { get; set; }
}

class Department
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string DeptName { get; set; }
}

OUTPUT

Answer 3

take look at this example

class Person
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string Phone { get; set; }
}

class Pet
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Person Owner { get; set; }
}

public static void LeftOuterJoinExample()
{
    Person magnus = new Person {ID = 1, FirstName = "Magnus", LastName = "Hedlund"};
    Person terry = new Person {ID = 2, FirstName = "Terry", LastName = "Adams"};
    Person charlotte = new Person {ID = 3, FirstName = "Charlotte", LastName = "Weiss"};
    Person arlene = new Person {ID = 4, FirstName = "Arlene", LastName = "Huff"};

    Pet barley = new Pet {Name = "Barley", Owner = terry};
    Pet boots = new Pet {Name = "Boots", Owner = terry};
    Pet whiskers = new Pet {Name = "Whiskers", Owner = charlotte};
    Pet bluemoon = new Pet {Name = "Blue Moon", Owner = terry};
    Pet daisy = new Pet {Name = "Daisy", Owner = magnus};

    // Create two lists.
    List<Person> people = new List<Person> {magnus, terry, charlotte, arlene};
    List<Pet> pets = new List<Pet> {barley, boots, whiskers, bluemoon, daisy};

    var query = from person in people
        where person.ID == 4
        join pet in pets on person equals pet.Owner  into personpets
        from petOrNull in personpets.DefaultIfEmpty()
        select new { Person=person, Pet = petOrNull}; 



    foreach (var v in query )
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0,-15}{1}", v.Person.FirstName + ":", (v.Pet == null ? "Does not Exist" : v.Pet.Name));
    }
}

// This code produces the following output:
//
// Magnus:        Daisy
// Terry:         Barley
// Terry:         Boots
// Terry:         Blue Moon
// Charlotte:     Whiskers
// Arlene:

now you are able to include elements from the left even if that element has no matches in the right, in our case we retrived Arlene even he has no matching in the right

here is the reference

How to: Perform Left Outer Joins (C# Programming Guide)

Answer 4

This is a SQL syntax compare to LINQ syntax for inner and left outer joins. Left Outer Join:

http://www.ozkary.com/2011/07/linq-to-entity-inner-and-left-joins.html

"The following example does a group join between product and category. This is essentially the left join. The into expression returns data even if the category table is empty. To access the properties of the category table, we must now select from the enumerable result by adding the from cl in catList.DefaultIfEmpty() statement.

Answer 5

There are three tables: persons, schools and persons_schools, which connects persons to the schools they study in. A reference to the person with id=6 is absent in the table persons_schools. However the person with id=6 is presented in the result lef-joined grid.

List<Person> persons = new List<Person>
{
    new Person { id = 1, name = "Alex", phone = "4235234" },
    new Person { id = 2, name = "Bob", phone = "0014352" },
    new Person { id = 3, name = "Sam", phone = "1345" },
    new Person { id = 4, name = "Den", phone = "3453452" },
    new Person { id = 5, name = "Alen", phone = "0353012" },
    new Person { id = 6, name = "Simon", phone = "0353012" }
};

List<School> schools = new List<School>
{
    new School { id = 1, name = "Saint. John's school"},
    new School { id = 2, name = "Public School 200"},
    new School { id = 3, name = "Public School 203"}
};

List<PersonSchool> persons_schools = new List<PersonSchool>
{
    new PersonSchool{id_person = 1, id_school = 1},
    new PersonSchool{id_person = 2, id_school = 2},
    new PersonSchool{id_person = 3, id_school = 3},
    new PersonSchool{id_person = 4, id_school = 1},
    new PersonSchool{id_person = 5, id_school = 2}
    //a relation to the person with id=6 is absent
};

var query = from person in persons
            join person_school in persons_schools on person.id equals person_school.id_person
            into persons_schools_joined
            from person_school_joined in persons_schools_joined.DefaultIfEmpty()
            from school in schools.Where(var_school => person_school_joined == null ? false : var_school.id == person_school_joined.id_school).DefaultIfEmpty()
            select new { Person = person.name, School = school == null ? String.Empty : school.name };

foreach (var elem in query)
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("{0},{1}", elem.Person, elem.School);
}

Answer 6

Here is a fairly easy to understand version using method syntax:

IEnumerable<JoinPair> outerLeft =
    lefts.SelectMany(l => 
        rights.Where(r => l.Key == r.Key)
              .DefaultIfEmpty(new Item())
              .Select(r => new JoinPair { LeftId = l.Id, RightId = r.Id }));