Filter search results from database

Question

Right now I'm working with a search function. I've a textbox and a button and search in a database full of employees. In another web part employees have the possibility to save their technical skills in a database and also on which level they are in (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert). When I as an admin want to lookup for an employee that knows for example C#, then I just search for it and all the employees with the skill turns up in a gridview.

But my question here is:

Is it possible to filter those results? For example if I put in a checkboxlist after the search and I want to filter on employees that are "Experts" on C#, is it possible to just display them? Sorry for my english, but I did my best. Hopefully I get an answer.

Here's an code example of how I search:

    private void SearchEmployeeSkillEng()
    {
        using (var db = new KnowItCvdbEntities())
        {
            var searchTechSkill = (from p in db.EMPLOYEES
                                  join ets in db.EMPLOYEES_TECHNICAL_SKILLS on p.employee_id equals
                                      ets.employee_id
                                  join ts in db.TECHNICAL_SKILLS_VALUES on ets.technical_skill_value_id
                                      equals
                                      ts.technical_skill_value_id
                                  join tsl in db.TECHNICAL_SKILL_LEVEL on ets.technical_skill_level_id
                                      equals
                                      tsl.technical_skill_level_id
                                  where
                                      ts.skill_name.Contains(TextBoxSearchCvEng.Text) ||
                                      ets.skill_name_other.Contains(TextBoxSearchCvEng.Text)
                                  select new TechnicalSkillsSearch()
                                  {
                                      EmployeeId = p.employee_id,
                                      FirstName = p.firstname,
                                      LastName = p.lastname,

                                      TechnicalSkillValueId = ts.technical_skill_value_id,
                                      SkillName = ts.skill_name,
                                      SkillNameOther = ets.skill_name_other,
                                      SkillType = ts.skill_type,
                                      TechnicalSkillLevelId = tsl.technical_skill_level_id,
                                      SkillLevel = tsl.skill_level
                                  }).ToList();

            if(searchTechSkill.Count > 0)
            {
                LabelException.Visible = false;
                foreach (var vTechSkill in searchTechSkill)
                {
                    if (vTechSkill != null)
                    {
                        if (vTechSkill.SkillNameOther != null)
                        {
                            if (!_searchEmpListEng.Contains(vTechSkill.FirstName + " " + vTechSkill.LastName + "," +
                                                         vTechSkill.EmployeeId))
                            {
                                _searchEmpListEng.Add(vTechSkill.FirstName + " " + vTechSkill.LastName + "," +
                                                   vTechSkill.EmployeeId.ToString());
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            if (!_searchEmpListEng.Contains(vTechSkill.FirstName + " " + vTechSkill.LastName + "," +
                                                         vTechSkill.EmployeeId))
                            {
                                _searchEmpListEng.Add(vTechSkill.FirstName + " " + vTechSkill.LastName + "," +
                                                   vTechSkill.EmployeeId.ToString());
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                LabelException.Visible = true;
                LabelException.Text = "Nothing found";
            }
            _dtEng.Clear();

        }
    }

TECHNICAL_SKILLS_VALUES is for example C#, MS ACCESS etc and TECHNICAL_SKILL_LEVEL is for example Expert, Beginner etc.

Yours, Kristian

Answer 1

Here is some pseudo code to filter the Employees at the point right after you've serialized the queries results into a collection of native C# objects. I'm assuming you have a List<Employee> (list of employee objects) and the Employee object has a level field.

   List<Employee> experts = oldList.Select(x => x).Where(y => y.level == "Expert").ToList();

Of course you should replace my hard coded "Expert" with something like ListBox.CurrentSelection or whatever you're using to get the users input on level but that's the basic idea.