Entity-framework – LINQ to Entities for subtracting 2 dates

datetimeentity-frameworklinq-to-entities

I am trying to determine the number of days between 2 dates using LINQ with Entity Framework. It is telling me that it does not recognize Subtract on the System.TimeSpan class

Here is my where portion of the LINQ query.

where ((DateTime.Now.Subtract(vid.CreatedDate).TotalDays < maxAgeInDays))

Here is the error I receive in the VS.NET debugger

{"LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method 'System.TimeSpan Subtract(System.DateTime)' method, and this method cannot be translated into a store expression."}

Am I doing something wrong or is there a better way to get the number of days between 2 DateTimes in the entity framework?

thanks
Michael

Best Answer

The accepted answer is better in this case, but for reference you can use the EntityFunctions class to perform operations on dates, among other things.

where (vid.CreatedDate >= EntityFunctions.AddDays(DateTime.Now, -maxAgeInDay))

Related Solutions

.net – Entity Framework vs LINQ to SQL

LINQ to SQL only supports 1 to 1 mapping of database tables, views, sprocs and functions available in Microsoft SQL Server. It's a great API to use for quick data access construction to relatively well designed SQL Server databases. LINQ2SQL was first released with C# 3.0 and .Net Framework 3.5.

LINQ to Entities (ADO.Net Entity Framework) is an ORM (Object Relational Mapper) API which allows for a broad definition of object domain models and their relationships to many different ADO.Net data providers. As such, you can mix and match a number of different database vendors, application servers or protocols to design an aggregated mash-up of objects which are constructed from a variety of tables, sources, services, etc. ADO.Net Framework was released with the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1.

This is a good introductory article on MSDN: Introducing LINQ to Relational Data

Javascript – Compare two dates with JavaScript

The Date object will do what you want - construct one for each date, then compare them using the >, <, <= or >=.

The ==, !=, ===, and !== operators require you to use date.getTime() as in

var d1 = new Date();
var d2 = new Date(d1);
var same = d1.getTime() === d2.getTime();
var notSame = d1.getTime() !== d2.getTime();

to be clear just checking for equality directly with the date objects won't work

var d1 = new Date();
var d2 = new Date(d1);

console.log(d1 == d2);   // prints false (wrong!) 
console.log(d1 === d2);  // prints false (wrong!)
console.log(d1 != d2);   // prints true  (wrong!)
console.log(d1 !== d2);  // prints true  (wrong!)
console.log(d1.getTime() === d2.getTime()); // prints true (correct)

I suggest you use drop-downs or some similar constrained form of date entry rather than text boxes, though, lest you find yourself in input validation hell.

For the curious, date.getTime() documentation:

Returns the numeric value of the specified date as the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. (Negative values are returned for prior times.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

.net – Entity Framework vs LINQ to SQL

Javascript – Compare two dates with JavaScript

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