Return anonymous type results?

Question

Using the simple example below, what is the best way to return results from multiple tables using Linq to SQL?

Say I have two tables:

Dogs:   Name, A         


        

Answer 1

No you cannot return anonymous types without going through some trickery.

If you were not using C#, what you would be looking for (returning multiple data without a concrete type) is called a Tuple.

There are alot of C# tuple implementations, using the one shown here, your code would work like this.

public IEnumerable> GetDogsWithBreedNames()
{
    var db = new DogDataContext(ConnectString);
    var result = from d in db.Dogs
                 join b in db.Breeds on d.BreedId equals b.BreedId
                 select new Tuple(d, b);

    return result;
}

And on the calling site:

void main() {
    IEnumerable> dogs = GetDogsWithBreedNames();
    foreach(Tuple tdog in dogs)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Dog {0} {1}", tdog.param1.Name, tdog.param2.BreedName);
    }
}