What is the equivalent DISTINCT(sql server) in the Linq - sql

Question

I have a Table(Send) with columns(Id, UserId,SendDate) and another table(Receive) with columns(Id,SendId,UserName).
I want show all records in SendTable with all RecieveUserName.
for example.
(Send)
1 1 2013
2 2 2013
(Recieve)
1 1 Jack
2 1 Ema
3 2 Alex
4 2 Sara
Result
1 1 2013 Jack, Ema
2 2 2013 Alex, Sara
I use this query in SqlServer (The DISTINCT keyword eliminates duplicate rows from the results of a SELECT statement)
SELECT DISTINCT c2.Id,
(SELECT STR( UserName )+ ','
FROM dbo.Reciver c1
WHERE c1.SendId = c2.id FOR XML PATH('')) Concatenated, c2.SendDate, c2.UserId
FROM dbo.Send AS c2 INNER JOIN
dbo.Reciver ON c2.Id = dbo.Reciver.SendId
How do this query in Linq?

Answer 1

Distinct is also available in LINQ.
For example
public class Product
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Code { get; set; }
}
Product[] products = { new Product { Name = "apple", Code = 9 },
new Product { Name = "orange", Code = 4 },
new Product { Name = "apple", Code = 10 },
new Product { Name = "lemon", Code = 9 } };
var lstDistProduct = products.Distinct();
foreach (Product p in list1)
{
Console.WriteLine(p.Code + " : " + p.Name);
}
Will return all rows.
var list1 = products.DistinctBy(x=> x.Code);
foreach (Product p in list1)
{
Console.WriteLine(p.Code + " : " + p.Name);
}
will return 9 and 4

Answer 2

It doesn't seem to me that you need to use Distinct in this Linq query. Assuming you have the relationships between tables set up on your linq datacontext, you can do something like this:
var result = from s in context.Send
select new {
id = s.Id,
userId = s.UserId,
date = s.SendDate,
users = s.Receive.Select(u => u.UserName)
}
Note: users will an IEnumerable<String> - you can use string.Join() on the client to join the names into a string.
Update
To return users as a string to first need to 'switch' to Linq To Objects by calling AsEnumerable() or ToList() and the Linq to Sql query.
var output = from s in result.AsEnumerable()
select new {
id = s.id,
userId = s.userId,
date = s.date,
users = string.Join(", ", s.users)
}
Also see Gert Arnolds answer for a good explanation.

Answer 3

What you want can only be done in two steps. Not because of the DISTINCT, but because of the FOR XML. The C# equivalent of the latter is String.Join(), but you can't use that in a linq to entities statement directly. So you must collect the required data first, then switch to linq to objects (by applying AsEnumerable) and then do the concatenation and distinct:
db.Sends
.Where(s => s.Receivers.Any())
.Select(s => new {
s.Id,
Concatenated = s.Receivers.Select(r => r.UserName)
s.SendDate,
s.UserId
})
.AsEnumerable()
.Select(x => new {
s.Id,
Concatenated = String.Join(", ", x.Concatenated)
s.SendDate,
s.UserId
})
.Distinct()