'Order by' for collection values

[Aliaksei]

Hi Telerik Team!

I have a question about 'order by' clause.

I have two classes:

/* NOTE: public class properties and methods omitted for clarity */

class Property{
   string val;
   ..
}

class Product{
   [ItemType(typeof(Property)]
   ArrayList properties;
   ..
}

I try to sort results by property values

select * from ProductExtent AS p, p.properties AS prop ORDER BY prop.val

and receive an exception

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.sql.exp.SelectExp.handleOrderByFieldNavNode(FieldNavNode nav, SelectExp se, Node prevNode)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.sql.exp.SelectExp.addOrderBy(OrderNode[] orders, Boolean append, JDOQLNodeToSqlExp visitor)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.query.RelationalJDOQLCompiler.addOrderBy(SelectExp root)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.query.RelationalJDOQLCompiler.compileImp(ImmutableQueryDetails q)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.query.RelationalJDOQLCompiler.compile(ImmutableQueryDetails q)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.RelationalStorageManager.compile(ImmutableQueryDetails q)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.Relational.RelationalStorageManager.compileQuery(ImmutableQueryDetails query)
   at OpenAccessRuntime.storagemanager.logging.LoggingStorageManager.compileQuery(ImmutableQueryDetails query)

Though prop.val in 'Where' clause works well

Could you please advice how I can order by collection values. Probably I need to change classes? I just need to have dynamic properties and ability to order by their values on SQL server side

Thanks in advance
Aliaksei

[Zoran]

Hello Aliaksei,

Yes you are right, that is a missing functionality of our OQL parser. The query can be re-written in another way though where the result set will be the one that you desire. Since the Product has a collection of properties I assume that the property has a reference to a Product object.

Here is the new look of the query then:

"SELECT * FROM  PropertyExtent AS p ORDER BY p.val"

The query generated will still contain a JOIN between the Product and Property tables as long as you use the product reference of the property objects from the result set.

I hope this is not to confusing, if you need more clarification please send us a sample project or describe the final goal you want to achieve and we can make a sample demonstrating this for you.

Kind regards,
Zoran
the Telerik team

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[Zoran]

Hello Aliaksei,

Your Telerik Points were updated.

All the best,
Zoran
the Telerik team

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[Aliaksei]

Hello Zoran,

Thank you for you message!

But it seems your solution does solve my problem.

I will clarify my task.

I have a Product class with a Hashtable of properties.

Product p1=new Product();
p1.Properties["price"]=10;
p1.Properties["color"]="red";
scope.Add(p1);

Product p2=new Product();
p2.Properties["price"]=15;
p2.Properties["color"]="green"
scope.Add(p2);

I need to select Products and order them by one of a property (let's say by "price" property) 

Could you please advice how could I implement this?

I will appreciate any help!

Thanks in advance,

Aliaksei

[Zoran]

Hi Aliaksei,

The goal would not be possible if every object of type Property does not know "it's Product". That is a common way how 1-n relations are handed with OpenAccess. That is a sample modification of the code from your first post so you could achieve your goal:

class Property{
   string val;
   Product product;
   ..
}

class Product{
   [ItemType(typeof(Property)]
   ArrayList properties;
   ..
}

If we have that and want to select the products the query would look as the following:

"SELECT p.Product FROM  PropertyExtent AS p ORDER BY p.val"

I hope that helps you.

Greetings,
Zoran
the Telerik team

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[Aliaksei]

Hello Zoran,

Thank you very much, your solution is what I needed.

For those who might face the same problem I'll show what I did.

I use the following classes:

class PropertyMeta{

string title;

string type;

...

}

class Property{

PropertyMeta meta;

string val;     Product product; /* its important the property to contain reference to its owner */

...

}

class Product{

[ItemType(typeof(string),typeof(Property))]

Hashtable properties=new Hashtable();

...

}

PropertyMeta describes property type and contains property name

Then I make the following query:

SELECT prop.product FROM PropertyExtent AS prop WHERE prop.meta.title='price' ORDER BY prop.val

Have a nice day