LINQ Using Max() to select a single row

Boggin picture Boggin · Feb 2, 2012 · Viewed 280.6k times · Source

I'm using LINQ on an IQueryable returned from NHibernate and I need to select the row with the maximum value(s) in a couple of fields.

I've simplified the bit that I'm sticking on. I need to select the one row from my table with the maximum value in one field.

var table = new Table { new Row(id: 1, status: 10), new Row(id: 2, status: 20) }

from u in table
group u by 1 into g
where u.Status == g.Max(u => u.Status)
select u

This is incorrect but I can't work out the right form.

BTW, what I'm actually trying to achieve is approximately this:

var clientAddress = this.repository.GetAll()
    .GroupBy(a => a)
    .SelectMany(
            g =>
            g.Where(
                a =>
                a.Reference == clientReference && 
                a.Status == ClientStatus.Live && 
                a.AddressReference == g.Max(x => x.AddressReference) && 
                a.StartDate == g.Max(x => x.StartDate)))
    .SingleOrDefault();

I started with the above lambda but I've been using LINQPad to try and work out the syntax for selecting the Max().

UPDATE

Removing the GroupBy was key.

var all = this.repository.GetAll();

var address = all
            .Where(
                a =>
                a.Reference == clientReference && 
                a.Status == ClientStatus.Live && 
                a.StartDate == all.Max(x => x.StartDate) &&
                a.AddressReference == all.Max(x => x.AddressReference))
            .SingleOrDefault();

Answer

Daniel Hilgarth picture Daniel Hilgarth · Feb 2, 2012

I don't see why you are grouping here.

Try this:

var maxValue = table.Max(x => x.Status)
var result = table.First(x => x.Status == maxValue);

An alternate approach that would iterate table only once would be this:

var result = table.OrderByDescending(x => x.Status).First();

This is helpful if table is an IEnumerable<T> that is not present in memory or that is calculated on the fly.