In my "old" T-SQL based application, I fill combo boxes with a list of previously used values for a certain field.

For example, I use the following query to fill a combo box:

"SELECT DISTINCT Category FROM tblCD where Category is not null ORDER BY Category"

I'm sure there's an easy way to do this in LLBLGen Pro, but I can't figure it out from the help file. And since I am lazy, I thought it would be easier to ask here

Create a typed list, or in code create a dynamic list (since runtimes 1.0.2004.1, released on sep 24) Please see the documentation of the typed list / views in the using the generated code documentation

Thanks. It works indeed, but it requires a lot of code to do a very simple thing.

This brings me to the following question:

Are there any plans to implement some kind of expression parser in LLBLGen Pro ? It would be nice if we could write filter or sort expressions in SQL-like syntax.

For example, instead of:

IPredicateExpression p = new PredicateExpression();

p.Add(PredicateFactory.Like(LicenseFieldIndex.Description,"%" + strSearch + "%"))
p.AddWithOr(PredicateFactory.Like(LicenseFieldIndex.LicNr,"%" + strSearch + "%");
        
return LicInternCollection.GetMultiAsDataTable ( p , 0 , 
      new SortExpression(SortClauseFactory.Create(LicenseFieldIndex.LicNr,SortOperator.Ascending))
    ) ;

We could use:

return LicInternCollection.GetMultiAsDataTable( "License.Description LIKE '%" + strSearch + "%' or License.LicNr like '%" + strSearch + "%'" , 0 , "License.LicNr ASC");

Similar constructs are possible in a number of other ORM mappers.

an OPath parser is planned indeed which will create a predicate/relation graph behind the scenes. Keep in mind that IPredicate objects are flexible and typed, a string is not flexible (you can't add your own predicate classes) nor is it typed, so you run the risk of typo's.

Nevertheless, it can be handy to have a less verbose method of creating queries.