I'm using a CASE
statement in my EntityDataSource to do custom sorting. Consider the following code:
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="myEntityDataSource" runat="server"
ConnectionString="name=MySQLEntities1"
DefaultContainerName="MySQLEntities1"
EnableFlattening="False"
EntitySetName="Persons"
EntityTypeFilter="Persons"
OrderBy="it.[Pack],
CASE it.[Type]
WHEN 'MAN' THEN 1
WHEN 'VROUW' THEN 2
WHEN 'KIND' THEN 3
END,
it.[BirthDate] ASC" />
In T-SQL this would be a perfecty normal way of sorting, but used in the EntityDataSource
it throws the following exception:
The query syntax is not valid. Near identifier 'it', line 11, column 21.
How can I get this type of sorting to work in my EntityDataSource
?
I was trying the very same thing today. I discovered on the Entity SQL Reference site that you apparently have to use CASE WHEN
and cannot use CASE [value] WHEN
. This approach, although not as it would be in T-SQL, did work for me. So your code should look like this:
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="myEntityDataSource" runat="server"
ConnectionString="name=MySQLEntities1"
DefaultContainerName="MySQLEntities1"
EnableFlattening="False"
EntitySetName="Persons"
EntityTypeFilter="Persons"
OrderBy="it.[Pack],
CASE
WHEN it.[Type] = 'MAN' THEN 1
WHEN it.[Type] = 'VROUW' THEN 2
WHEN it.[Type] = 'KIND' THEN 3 END, it.[BirthDate] ASC" />