Filter and Sort Data - .NET SDK

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Query with LINQ

Comparison Operators
Logical Operators
String Operators
Full Text Search
Unsupported LINQ Operators
Query with Realm Query Language
Aggregate Operators
Full Text Search
Sort Query Results

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To query, filter, and sort data in a realm, use the Realm query engine. There are two ways to use the query engine with the .NET SDK:

LINQ Syntax
Realm Query Language

You should use LINQ syntax for querying when possible, as it aligns with .NET conventions.

Note

About the examples on this page

The examples in this page use a simple data set for a task list app. The two Realm object types are Project and Task. A Task has a name, assignee's name, and completed flag. There is also an arbitrary number for priority -- higher is more important -- and a count of minutes spent working on it. A Project has zero or more Tasks.

See the schema for these two classes, Project and Task, below:

public partial class Items : IRealmObject
{
    [PrimaryKey]
    [MapTo("_id")]
    public ObjectId Id { get; set; } = ObjectId.GenerateNewId();
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Assignee { get; set; }
    public bool IsComplete { get; set; }
    public int Priority { get; set; }
    public int ProgressMinutes { get; set; }
}
public partial class Project : IRealmObject
{
    [PrimaryKey]
    [MapTo("_id")]
    public ObjectId ID { get; set; } = ObjectId.GenerateNewId();
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public IList<Items> Items { get; }
}

Query with LINQ

Realm's query engine implements standard LINQ syntax.

There are several operators available to filter a Realm collection with LINQ. Filters work by evaluating an operator expression for every object in the collection being filtered. If the expression resolves to true, realm includes the object in the results collection.

An expression consists of one of the following:

The name of a property of the object currently being evaluated
An operator
A value of any type used by realm (string, date, number, boolean, etc.)

Note

The Realm .NET SDK does not currently support all of the LINQ operators. Refer to the Unsupported LINQ Operators section for a list of those unsupported operators.

Comparison Operators

Value comparisons

Operator	Description
`==`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand expression is equal to the right-hand expression.
`>`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand numerical or date expression is greater than the right-hand numerical or date expression. For dates, this evaluates to `true` if the left-hand date is later than the right-hand date.
`>=`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand numerical or date expression is greater than or equal to the right-hand numerical or date expression. For dates, this evaluates to `true` if the left-hand date is later than or the same as the right-hand date.
`<`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand numerical or date expression is less than the right-hand numerical or date expression. For dates, this evaluates to `true` if the left-hand date is earlier than the right-hand date.
`<=`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand numeric expression is less than or equal to the right-hand numeric expression. For dates, this evaluates to `true` if the left-hand date is earlier than or the same as the right-hand date.
`!=`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand expression is not equal to the right-hand expression.

Example

The following example uses the query engine's comparison operators to:

Find high priority tasks by comparing the value of the priority property value with a threshold number, above which priority can be considered high.
Find just-started or short-running tasks by seeing if the progressMinutes property falls within a certain range.
Find unassigned tasks by finding tasks where the assignee property is equal to null.
Find tasks assigned to specific teammates Ali or Jamie by seeing if the assignee property is in a list of names.

var highPri = items.Where(i => i.Priority > 5);
var quickItems = items.Where(i =>
    i.ProgressMinutes >= 1 &&
    i.ProgressMinutes < 15);
var unassignedItems = items.Where(i =>
    i.Assignee == null);
var AliOrJamieItems = items.Where(i =>
   i.Assignee == "Ali" ||
   i.Assignee == "Jamie");

Logical Operators

You can use the logical operators listed in the following table to make compound predicates:

Operator	Description
`&&`	Evaluates to `true` if both left-hand and right-hand expressions are `true`.
`!`	Negates the result of the given expression.
`\|\|`	Evaluates to `true` if either expression returns `true`.

Example

We can use the query language's logical operators to find all of Ali's completed tasks. That is, we find all tasks where the assignee property value is equal to 'Ali' AND the isComplete property value is true:

var completedItemsForAli = items
    .Where(i => i.Assignee == "Ali" && i.IsComplete);

String Operators

You can compare string values using the string operators listed in the following table. Regex-like wildcards allow more flexibility in search.

Operator	Description
`StartsWith`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string expression begins with the right-hand string expression. This is similar to `contains`, but only matches if the left-hand string expression is found at the beginning of the right-hand string expression.
`EndsWith`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string expression ends with the right-hand string expression. This is similar to `contains`, but only matches if the left-hand string expression is found at the very end of the right-hand string expression.
`Like`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string expression matches the right-hand string wildcard string expression. A wildcard string expression is a string that uses normal characters with two special wildcard characters: The `*` wildcard matches zero or more of any character The `?` wildcard matches any character. For example, the wildcard string "d?g" matches "dog", "dig", and "dug", but not "ding", "dg", or "a dog".
`Equals`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string is lexicographically equal to the right-hand string.
`Contains`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string expression is found anywhere in the right-hand string expression.
`string.IsNullOrEmpty`	Evaluates to `true` if the left-hand string expression is null or empty. Note that `IsNullOrEmpty()` is a static method on `string`.

Example

The following examples use the query engine's string operators to find tasks:

// Note: In each of the following examples, you can replace the
// Where() method with First(), FirstOrDefault(),
// Single(), SingleOrDefault(),
// Last(), or LastOrDefault().
// Get all items where the Assignee's name starts with "E" or "e"
var ItemssStartWithE = items.Where(i => i.Assignee.StartsWith("E",
    StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
// Get all items where the Assignee's name ends wth "is"
// (lower case only)
var endsWith = items.Where(t =>
    t.Assignee.EndsWith("is", StringComparison.Ordinal));
// Get all items where the Assignee's name contains the
// letters "ami" in any casing
var itemsContains = items.Where(i => i.Assignee.Contains("ami",
     StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
// Get all items that have no assignee
var null_or_empty = items.Where(i => string.IsNullOrEmpty(i.Assignee));

Important

Case Comparisons

When evaluating strings, the second parameter in all functions except Like must be either StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase or StringComparison.Ordinal. For the Like() method, the second parameter is a boolean value (where "true" means "case sensitive").

Full Text Search

You can use LINQ to query on properties that have Full-Text Search Indexes (FTS) on them. To query these properties, use QueryMethods.FullTextSearch. The following examples query the Person.Biography field:

// Find all people with "scientist" and "Nobel" in their biography
var scientists = realm.All<Person>()
    .Where(p => QueryMethods.FullTextSearch(p.Biography, "scientist Nobel"));
// Find all people with "scientist" in their biography, but not "physics"
var scientistsButNotPhysicists = realm.All<Person>()
    .Where(p => QueryMethods.FullTextSearch(p.Biography, "scientist -physics"));

Unsupported LINQ Operators

The following LINQ operators are not currently supported by the Realm .NET SDK:

Category	Unsupported Operators
Concatenation	`Concat` `Join`. While `Join` is not supported, it is not needed with Realm. Instead of using keys in a Join statement, as you would in a traditional relational database, you can reference another type as a property. For more information, refer to Embedded Objects - .NET SDK. `GroupJoin`
Grouping	`GroupBy`
Partitioning	`Take` `Skip` `TakeWhile` `SkipWhile`
Projection	`SelectMany` `Select`, with one exception: when used with the query syntax, `Select` is supported as long as you select the Realm object itself and not a derivative: `var tasks = from t in realm.All<Task>() where t.Assignee == "Caleb" select t;`
Sets	`Distinct` `Union` `Intersect` `Except`

Query with Realm Query Language

You can also use the Realm Query Language (RQL) to query realms. RQL is a string-based query language used to access the query engine. When using RQL, you use the Filter() method:

var elvisProjects = projects.Filter("Items.Assignee == $0", "Elvis");

Important

Because LINQ provides compile-time error checking of queries, you should use it instead of RQL in most cases. If you require features beyond LINQ's current capabilities, such as using aggregation, use RQL.

Aggregate Operators

Aggregate operators traverse a collection and reduce it to a single value. Note that aggregations use the Filter() method, which can be used to create more complex queries that are currently unsupported by the LINQ provider. Filter() supports SORT and DISTINCT clauses in addition to filtering.

For more information on the available aggregate operators, refer to the Realm Query Language aggregate operator reference.

The following examples show different ways to aggregate data:

// Get all projects with an average Item priorty > 5:
var avgPriority = projects.Filter(
    "Items.@avg.Priority > $0", 5);
// Get all projects where all Items are high-priority:
var highPriProjects = projects.Filter(
    "Items.@min.Priority > $0", 5);
// Get all projects with long-running Items:
var longRunningProjects = projects.Filter(
    "Items.@sum.ProgressMinutes > $0", 100);

Full Text Search

You can use RQL to query on properties that have Full-Text Search Indexes (FTS) on them. To query these properties, use the TEXT operator. The following example queries the Person.Biography field:

// Find all people with "scientist" and "Nobel" in their biography
var filteredScientists = realm.All<Person>()
    .Filter("Biography TEXT $0", "scientist Nobel");
// Find all people with "scientist" in their biography, but not "physics"
var filteredScientistsButNotPhysicists = realm.All<Person>()
    .Filter("Biography TEXT $0", "scientist -physics");

Sort Query Results

A sort operation allows you to configure the order in which Realm returns queried objects. You can sort based on one or more properties of the objects in the results collection.

Realm only guarantees a consistent order of results when the results are sorted.

Example

The following code sorts the projects by name in reverse alphabetical order (i.e. "descending" order).

var projectsSorted = projects.OrderByDescending(p => p.Name);

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