LINQ query with omitted user input - asp.net-mvc

Question

so I have a form with several fields which are criteria for searching in a database.
I want to formulate a query using LINQ like so:
var Coll = (from obj in table where value1 = criteria1 && value2 = criteria2...)
and so on.
My problem is, I don't want to write it using If statements to check if every field has been filled in, nor do I want to make separate methods for the various search cases (criteria 1 and criteria 5 input; criteria 2 and criteria 3 input ... etc.)
So my question is: How can I achieve this without writing an excessive amount of code? If I just write in the query with comparison, will it screw up the return values if the user inputs only SOME values?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Yes, it will screw up.
I would go with the ifs, I don't see what's wrong with them:
var query = table;
if(criteria1 != null)
query = query.Where(x => x.Value1 == criteria1);
if(criteria2 != null)
query = query.Where(x => x.Value2 == criteria2);
If you have a lot of criteria you could use expressions, a dictionary and a loop to cut down on the repetitive code.

Answer 2

In an ASP.NET MVC app, chances are your user input is coming from a form which is being POSTed to your server. In that case, you can make use of strongly-typed views, using a viewmodel with [Required] on the criteria that MUST be provided. Then you wrap your method in if (ModelState.IsValid) { ... } and you've excluded all the cases where the user hasn't given you something they need.
Beyond that, if you can collect your criteria into a list, you can filter it. So, you could do something like this:
filterBy = userValues.Where(v => v != null);
var Coll = (from obj in table where filterBy.Contains(value1) select obj);
You can make this more complex by having a Dictionary (or Lookup for non-unique keys) that contains a user-entered value along with some label (an enum, perhaps) that tells you which field they're filtering by, and then you can group them by that label to separate out the filters for each field, and then filter as above. You could even have a custom SearchFilter object that contains other info, so you can have filters with AND, NOT and OR conditions...
Failing that, you can remember that until you trigger evaluation of an IQueryable, it doesn't hit the database, so you can just do this:
var Coll = (from obj in table where value1 == requiredCriteria select obj);
if(criteria1 != null)
{
query = query.Where(x => x.Value1 == criteria1);
}
//etc...
if(criteria5 != null)
{
query = query.Where(x => x.Value5 == criteria5);
}
return query.ToList();
That first line applies any criteria that MUST be there; if there aren't any mandatory ones then it could just be var Coll = table;.
That will add any criteria that are provided will be applied, any that aren't will be ignored, you catch all the possible combinations, and only one query is made at the end when you .ToList() it.

Answer 3

As I understand of your question you want to centralize multiple if for the sake of readability; if I were right the following would be one of some possible solutions
Func<object, object, bool> CheckValueWithAnd = (x, y) => x == null ? true : x==y;
var query = from obj in table
where CheckValue(obj.value1, criteria1) &&
CheckValue(obj.value2, criteria2) &&
...
select obj;
It ls flexible because in different situations or scenarios you can change the function in the way that fulfill your expectation and you do not need to have multiple if.
If you want to use OR operand in your expression you need to have second function
Func<object, object, bool> CheckValueWithOr = (x, y) => x == null ? false : x==y;