Entity framework query to include child entities of entity collection

Question

I have a ticket entity that has ticketNotes (0 to many) and would like to pull back the user details for who created each note when I query tickets.

I use the following code to query a ticket

var ticket = (from t in context.Tickets
.Include(t=>t.Site)
.Include(t=>t.Caller)
.Include(t=>t.Caller.Site)
.Include(t => t.Notes)
.Include(t=>t.OpenedByUser)
select t).First(t => t.TicketId == ticketId);

My TicketNote Class is:

public class TicketNote
{
    public Guid TicketNoteId { get; set; }
    public string NoteText { get; set; }
    public DateTime CreatedTime { get; set; }
    public Guid TicketId { get; set; }
    public virtual Ticket Ticket { get; set; }
    public bool ReadOnly { get; set; }
    public DateTime? DateTimeDeleted { get; set; }
    public Guid TenantId { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DefaultValue(typeof(Guid), "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000")]
    public Guid CreatedByUserId { get; set; }
    [ForeignKey("CreatedByUserId")]
    public virtual User CreatedByUser { get; set; }
 }

I would like to add

.Include(t => t.Notes.CreatedByUser)

However as notes is a collection I don't get the option.

Please advise the best approach to achieve pulling back the CreatedByUser which is NULL at the moment.

Thanks

Answer 1

You can include more complex statements to get at multilevel collections. Try the following:

.Include(t => t.Notes.Select(n => n.CreatedByUser))

Answer 2

You have ticket variable which have property Notes inside it. For performance you may use

ticket.Notes.Select(t => n.CreatedByUser)