So you’ve got a method that you want to debug for some reason, but let’s say this method gets called quite often and you’re only really interested in debugging the method when a certain parameter contains a certain value.  Happens more often than you might think.  You could throw a breakpoint at the first line of code, but then you have to hit F5 to continue normal processing until you get the specific condition you want to debug.  Or, you can give your breakpoint a condition.  Here’s a quick screen-grab:

Basically, all you have to do is right-click on your breakpoint to get this menu.  There are, as you can see, several options you can set for your breakpoint, some more advanced than others.  The one we’re going to look at in this blog post is the “Condition…” option.  Clicking this option will give you the following window:

Now, “fieldName” is one of the arguments to the method that I’m debugging, and as you can see, I’m only interested in hitting this breakpoint if the value of that argument is “SaleStartDate” or “SaleEndDate”.  If the “fieldName” argument does not equal either of those strings, code does not break on that point and continues on its merry way.  This way, I only get a code break when I want it.

Again, this is probably nothing new for most of you out there if you’ve been doing development with Visual Studio for any length of time.  But there was a time that I didn’t know about this, and I’m sure there are others that don’t.

As always, questions/comments/suggestions are welcome in the comments.

Now, before I continue, I should mention that my business objects are coming from the Entity Framework, and thus any LINQ queries I execute against collections of these objects will be using LINQ to Entities, not plain LINQ to Objects/LINQ to SQL.  So here’s a snapshot of the existing code (not the exact same code, names have been changed to protect the innocent and/or my job):

// "filteredItems" is an IQueryable<Product> which is returned from an Entity Framework repository
var vms = filteredItems.Take(100).Select(x => new ViewModel
{
    Id = x.Id,
    Description = x.Description,
    Size = string.Format("{0} L", x.SizeValue)
});

Now, after running this code, I started to get this exception: “LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method ‘System.String Format(System.String, System.Object, System.Object)’ method, and this method cannot be translated into a store expression.”  Odd, I thought, I’ve never had a problem calling string.Format() on anything before.  So off to Google I go, which leads me to StackOverflow (of course, can’t pimp SO enough, great developer resource), and I found out what was going on.  As is stated in a comment on this question:

…the problem is with the ELINQ (linq 2 entities), because it translates your code to SQL, and when it comes to an inner ToString request, it doesn’t know how to translate ‘ToString’ to SQL.

Okay, I get that, makes sense I suppose.  So how do I fix it?  Well, that was almost painfully easy to do:

// "filteredItems" is an IQueryable<Product> which is returned from an Entity Framework repository
var vms = filteredItems.Take(100).ToList().Select(x => new ViewModel
{
    Id = x.Id,
    Description = x.Description,
    Size = string.Format("{0} L", x.SizeValue)
});

In case you missed it, after the “Take(100)” call, I call ToList, which iterates through the IQueryable to create the List<T>, which causes EF to execute the SQL to actually return data. After calling “ToList()”, I essentially have a List<T> of POCO objects that I can do whatever I want to, because EF has already executed its SQL.

So, if you are iterating over an IQueryable that came from Entity Framework, if you need to do anything funky with the data for display purposes, make sure you call “ToList” on your collection before doing your funkiness.

Regardless, I am definitely looking forward to attending this year.  It will be held at the U of M Campus on April 14th and 15th.  Follow them on twitter @TCCodeCamp or check out their site http://www.twincitiescodecamp.com.

My only question is, will Jason Bock be giving away copies of his VB6 book… again? 

private decimal? QuantizeDecimal(IEnumerable<decimal> values)
{
    if (!values.Any())
    {
        return null;
    }

    decimal firstValue = values.First();
    return (values.Skip(1).All(x => x == firstValue)) ? firstValue : null;
}

So the idea is, if the collection is empty, return null (or whatever value indicates inequality for you). Grab the first value in the collection, then test to see if the rest of the values in the collection match the first one (first skipping the first value, obviously). In my case, a null value defines that there were values that didn’t match, so I don’t show anything. However, if all the values match, then I return that value to display on my form.

Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions for improvement, etc., please comment below!

In other news, it’s been 6 days since I last had a real cigarette.  Breathing is fun.

I know, I know.  Myspace?  Really?  Well, they used to be hosted on a site called GarageBand.com that apparently got bought out or taken over by Myspace or something, and that’s where my music ended up.  How it got tied to my old Myspace account that I haven’t checked in years I have no idea, but whatevs.

http://www.myspace.com/seventeenhours/music

“Desolation Demo” – This is my metal track back when I had the means to record such music.  Just my guitar, my trusty Line 6 POD 2.0 (which I miss oh so much) and my computer.  And recording software.  And Drumkit From Hell.  Fun times.

“There Were Times Demo” – This song.  Hoo boy.  I have plans for this bad boy.  I love the sound I was able to get with my acoustic on this track.  I love the chord progression and melodies.  I hate writer’s block, however, which is why this track is unfinished.

“Avalon Demo” – So, many moons ago when I was a teenager, I had a girlfriend.  No, seriously!  Okay, stop laughing.  STOP.  Thank you.  Anyway, as any childish teenager going through the transition to adulthood and responsibility, I broke up with this girl for the completely wrong reasons.  And I knew that it hurt her something bad.  Hurt me too.  So the lyrics kind of sprang from that experience and I’d had them kicking around since that time.  The music just came from an urge to write something in the key of D.  So I merged the two.  Had my friend Cole sing on this one.  Once the song was done, it was a pretty cathartic experience.  I plan on keeping the song and re-writing the lyrics.  I like the chords and melodies, but the lyrics were written as a teenager to deal with a stupid mistake.  Now that I’m an adult, I have many more stupid mistakes from which to choose from.

“Melancholy Demo” – This is just a short idea I got down to play around with, nothing special.  Just me putzing around with harmonies.  The mix is awful on both clean and electric parts, but I don’t care because I dig it.

And that’s all I’ve got for now.  I’ve got other tunes floating around I’ll get around to posting and blogging about eventually.

See, I plan on starting the Couch to 5K program on Monday, which is a running program that is designed to slowly get you from a couch potato to running a 5K.  I have the program printed out and stuck to my fridge.  I plan on getting some running shoes this weekend and even found an app for my phone to track my progress.  So all is set.

But I’ve been a long time smoker, and have tried many, many, many times to quit.  Hoping this time it sticks.

Ah, I see that my build is done, so back to work I must go.  More later, peeps.