Simulating Cross Context Joins--LINQ/C#

Question

Here's the issue:

I have 2 data contexts that I would like to do a join on. Now I know that LINQ doesn't allow joins from one context to another, and I know that 2 possible solutions would be to either create a single datacontext or to have 2 seperate queries (which is what I'm doing for now). However what I would like to do is to "simulate" a join.

Here's what I've tried.

using (var _baseDataContext = Instance)
{
    var query = from a in _baseDataContext.Account.ACCOUNTs
                where a.STR_ACCOUNT_NUMBER.ToString() == accountID
                join app in _baseDataContext.Account.APPLICATIONs on a.GUID_ACCOUNT_ID equals
                            app.GUID_ACCOUNT
                join l in GetLoans() on app.GUID_APPLICATION equals l.GUID_APPLICATION
                select l.GUID_LOAN;

    return query.Count() > 0 ? query.First() : Guid.Empty;
}

private static IQueryable<LOAN> GetLoans()
{
    using (var _baseDataContext = Instance)
    {
        return (from l in _baseDataContext.Loan.LOANs
                select l).AsQueryable();
    }
}

In run time I get is

System.InvalidOperationException: The query contains references to items defined on a different data context

EDIT:

Working Solution:

using (var _baseDataContext = Instance)
{
    var query = from a in _baseDataContext.Account.ACCOUNTs
                where a.STR_ACCOUNT_NUMBER.ToString() == accountID
                join app in _baseDataContext.Account.APPLICATIONs on a.GUID_ACCOUNT_ID equals
                           app.GUID_ACCOUNT
                join l in GetLoans() on app.GUID_APPLICATION equals l.GUID_APPLICATION 
                select l.GUID_LOAN;

     return (query.Count() > 0) ? query.First() : Guid.Empty;
}

private static IEnumerable<LOAN> GetLoans()
{
    using (var _baseDataContext = Instance)
    {
        return (from l in _baseDataContext.Loan.LOANs
                select l).AsQueryable();
    }
}

Answer 1

Maybe something like this can get you started in the right direction. I made a mock database with similar columns based on your column names and got some results.

    class Program
{
    static AccountContextDataContext aContext = new AccountContextDataContext(@"Data Source=;Initial Catalog=;Integrated Security=True");
    static LoanContextDataContext lContext = new LoanContextDataContext(@"Data Source=;Initial Catalog=;Integrated Security=True");

    static void Main()
    {

        var query = from a in aContext.ACCOUNTs
                    join app in aContext.APPLICATIONs on a.GUID_ACCOUNT_ID equals app.GUID_ACCOUNT
                    where app.GUID_APPLICATION.ToString() == "24551D72-D4C2-428B-84BA-5837A25D8CF6"
                    select GetLoans(app.GUID_APPLICATION);

        IEnumerable<LOAN> loan = query.First();
        foreach (LOAN enumerable in loan)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(enumerable.GUID_LOAN);
        }

        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static IEnumerable<LOAN> GetLoans(Guid applicationGuid)
    {
        return (from l in lContext.LOANs where l.GUID_APPLICATION == applicationGuid select l).AsQueryable();
    }
}

Hope this helps!