[c#] The entity cannot be constructed in a LINQ to Entities query

There is an entity type called Product that is generated by entity framework. I have written this query

public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    return from p in db.Products
           where p.CategoryID== categoryID
           select new Product { Name = p.Name};
}

The code below throws the following error :

"The entity or complex type Shop.Product cannot be constructed in a LINQ to Entities query"

var products = productRepository.GetProducts(1).Tolist();

But when I use select p instead of select new Product { Name = p.Name}; it works correctly.

How can I preform a custom select section?

In many cases, the transformation is not needed. Think for the reason you want the strongly type List, and evaluate if you just want the data, for example, in a web service or for displaying it. It does not matter the type. You just need to know how to read it and check that is identical to the properties defined in the anonymous type that you defined. That is the optimun scenario, cause something you don't need all the fields of an entity, and that's the reason anonymous type exists.

A simple way is doing this:

IEnumerable<object> list = dataContext.Table.Select(e => new { MyRequiredField = e.MyRequiredField}).AsEnumerable();

It won't let you map back onto Product since that is your table you are querying. You need an anonymous function, then you can add it to a ViewModel, and add each ViewModel to a List<MyViewModel> and return these. It's a slight digression, but I include caveats about handling nullable dates because these are a pain in the behind to deal with, just in case you have any. This is how I handled it.

Hopefully you have a ProductViewModel:

public class ProductViewModel
{
    [Key]
    public string ID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

I have dependency injection/repository framework where I call a function to grab my data. Using your post as an example, in your Controller function call, it would look like this:

int categoryID = 1;
var prods = repository.GetProducts(categoryID);

In the repository class:

public IEnumerable<ProductViewModel> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
   List<ProductViewModel> lstPVM = new List<ProductViewModel>();

   var anonymousObjResult = from p in db.Products
                            where p.CategoryID == categoryID 
                            select new
                            {
                                CatID = p.CategoryID,
                                Name = p.Name
                            };

        // NOTE: If you have any dates that are nullable and null, you'll need to
        // take care of that:  ClosedDate = (DateTime?)p.ClosedDate ?? DateTime.Now

        // If you want a particular date, you have to define a DateTime variable,
        // assign your value to it, then replace DateTime.Now with that variable. You
        // cannot call a DateTime.Parse there, unfortunately. 
        // Using 
        //    new Date("1","1","1800"); 
        // works, though. (I add a particular date so I can edit it out later.)

        // I do this foreach below so I can return a List<ProductViewModel>. 
        // You could do: return anonymousObjResult.ToList(); here
        // but it's not as clean and is an anonymous type instead of defined
        // by a ViewModel where you can control the individual field types

        foreach (var a in anonymousObjResult)
        {                
            ProductViewModel pvm = new ProductViewModel();
            pvm.ID = a.CatID;  
            pvm.Name = a.Name;
            lstPVM.Add(rvm);
        }

        // Obviously you will just have ONE item there, but I built it 
        // like this so you could bring back the whole table, if you wanted
        // to remove your Where clause, above.

        return lstPVM;
    }

Back in the controller, you do:

 List<ProductViewModel> lstProd = new List<ProductViewModel>();

 if (prods != null) 
 {
    // For setting the dates back to nulls, I'm looking for this value:
    // DateTime stdDate = DateTime.Parse("01/01/1800");

    foreach (var a in prods)
    {
        ProductViewModel o_prod = new ReportViewModel();
        o_prod.ID = a.ID;
        o_prod.Name = a.Name;
       // o_prod.ClosedDate = a.ClosedDate == stdDate ? null : a.ClosedDate;
        lstProd.Add(o_prod);
    }
}
return View(lstProd);  // use this in your View as:   @model IEnumerable<ProductViewModel>

If you are using Entity framework, then try removing property from DbContext which uses your complex model as Entity I had same problem when mapping multiple model into a viewmodel named Entity

public DbSet<Entity> Entities { get; set; }

Removing the entry from DbContext fixed my error.

In response to the other question which was marked as duplicate (see here) I figured out a quick and easy solution based on the answer of Soren:

data.Tasks.AddRange(
    data.Task.AsEnumerable().Select(t => new Task{
        creator_id   = t.ID,
        start_date   = t.Incident.DateOpened,
        end_date     = t.Incident.DateCLosed,
        product_code = t.Incident.ProductCode
        // so on...
    })
);
data.SaveChanges();

Note: This solution only works if you have a navigation property (foreign key) on the Task class (here called 'Incident'). If you don't have that, you can just use one of the other posted solutions with "AsQueryable()".

Here is one way to do this without declaring aditional class:

public List<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    var query = from p in db.Products
            where p.CategoryID == categoryID
            select new { Name = p.Name };
    var products = query.ToList().Select(r => new Product
    {
        Name = r.Name;
    }).ToList();

    return products;
}

However, this is only to be used if you want to combine multiple entities in a single entity. The above functionality (simple product to product mapping) is done like this:

public List<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    var query = from p in db.Products
            where p.CategoryID == categoryID
            select p;
    var products = query.ToList();

    return products;
}

Another simple way :)

public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    var productList = db.Products
        .Where(p => p.CategoryID == categoryID)
        .Select(item => 
            new Product
            {
                Name = item.Name
            })
        .ToList()
        .AsQueryable(); // actually it's not useful after "ToList()" :D

    return productList;
}

There is another way that I found works, you have to build a class that derives from your Product class and use that. For instance:

public class PseudoProduct : Product { }

public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    return from p in db.Products
           where p.CategoryID== categoryID
           select new PseudoProduct() { Name = p.Name};
}

Not sure if this is "allowed", but it works.

You can solve this by using Data Transfer Objects (DTO's).

These are a bit like viewmodels where you put in the properties you need and you can map them manually in your controller or by using third-party solutions like AutoMapper.

With DTO's you can :

• Make data serialisable (Json)
• Get rid of circular references
• Reduce networktraffic by leaving properties you don't need (viewmodelwise)
• Use objectflattening

I've been learning this in school this year and it's a very useful tool.

You can project into anonymous type, and then from it to model type

public IEnumerable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    return (from p in Context.Set<Product>()
            where p.CategoryID == categoryID
            select new { Name = p.Name }).ToList()
           .Select(x => new Product { Name = x.Name });
}

Edit: I am going to be a bit more specific since this question got a lot of attention.

You cannot project into model type directly (EF restriction), so there is no way around this. The only way is to project into anonymous type (1st iteration), and then to model type (2nd iteration).

Please also be aware that when you partially load entities in this manner, they cannot be updated, so they should remain detached, as they are.

I never did completely understand why this is not possible, and the answers on this thread do not give strong reasons against it (mostly speaking about partially loaded data). It is correct that in partially loaded state entity cannot be updated, but then, this entity would be detached, so accidental attempts to save them would not be possible.

Consider method I used above: we still have a partially loaded model entity as a result. This entity is detached.

Consider this (wish-to-exist) possible code:

return (from p in Context.Set<Product>()
        where p.CategoryID == categoryID
        select new Product { Name = p.Name }).AsNoTracking().ToList();

This could also result in a list of detached entities, so we would not need to make two iterations. A compiler would be smart to see that AsNoTracking() has been used, which will result in detached entities, so it could allow us to do this. If, however, AsNoTracking() was omitted, it could throw the same exception as it is throwing now, to warn us that we need to be specific enough about the result we want.

if you are Executing Linq to Entity you can't use the ClassType with new in the select closure of query only anonymous types are allowed (new without type)

take look at this snippet of my project

//...
var dbQuery = context.Set<Letter>()
                .Include(letter => letter.LetterStatus)
                .Select(l => new {Title =l.Title,ID = l.ID, LastModificationDate = l.LastModificationDate, DateCreated = l.DateCreated,LetterStatus = new {ID = l.LetterStatusID.Value,NameInArabic = l.LetterStatus.NameInArabic,NameInEnglish = l.LetterStatus.NameInEnglish} })
                               ^^ without type__________________________________________________________________________________________________________^^ without type

of you added the new keyword in Select closure even on the complex properties you will got this error

so remove the ClassTypes from new keyword on Linq to Entity queries ,,

because it will transformed to sql statement and executed on SqlServer

so when can I use new with types on select closure?

you can use it if you you are dealing with LINQ to Object (in memory collection)

//opecations in tempList , LINQ to Entities; so we can not use class types in select only anonymous types are allowed
var tempList = dbQuery.Skip(10).Take(10).ToList();// this is list of <anonymous type> so we have to convert it so list of <letter>

//opecations in list , LINQ to Object; so we can use class types in select
list = tempList.Select(l => new Letter{ Title = l.Title, ID = l.ID, LastModificationDate = l.LastModificationDate, DateCreated = l.DateCreated, LetterStatus = new LetterStatus{ ID = l.LetterStatus.ID, NameInArabic = l.LetterStatus.NameInArabic, NameInEnglish = l.LetterStatus.NameInEnglish } }).ToList();
                                ^^^^^^ with type 

after I executed ToList on query it became in memory collection so we can use new ClassTypes in select

you can add AsEnumerable to your collection like the follow :

public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    return from p in db.Products.AsEnumerable()
           where p.CategoryID== categoryID
           select new Product { Name = p.Name};
}

You can use this and it should be working --> You must use toList before making the new list using select:

db.Products
    .where(x=>x.CategoryID == categoryID).ToList()
    .select(x=>new Product { Name = p.Name}).ToList(); 

only add AsEnumerable() :

public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts(int categoryID)
{
    return from p in db.Products.AsEnumerable()
           where p.CategoryID== categoryID
           select new Product { Name = p.Name};
}