Difference between Select and Where in Entity Framework

c# .net linq entity-framework linq-to-sql
Anish picture Anish · Nov 22, 2011 · Viewed 27.7k times · Source

What is the difference between .Select() and .Where() in Entity Framework? Eg 

return ContextSet().Select(x=> x.FirstName == "John")

vs

ContextSet().Where(x=> x.FirstName == "John")

When should I use .Select vs .Where?

Answer

George Duckett picture George Duckett · Nov 22, 2011

Select is a projection, so what you get is the expression x=> x.FirstName == "John" evaluated for each element in ContextSet() on the server. i.e. lots of true/false values (the same number as your original list). If you look the select will return something like IEnumerable<bool> (because the type of x=> x.FirstName == "John" is a bool).

Where filters the results, returning an enumerable of the original type (no projection).

So, use Select when you want to keep all results, but change their type (project them).

Use Where when you want to filter your results, keeping the original type

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