In this chapter, we will be covering another common API that people will use is the NHibernate LINQ provider. Its access through an extension method on ISession and the signature is a Query <T>. There are two types of syntax while using LINQ −

• Query Chaining Syntax
• Query Comprehension Syntax

Query Chaining Syntax

You can access any record from the database using the method chain syntax as shown in the following program.

var customer = session.Query<Customer>() .Where(c => c.FirstName == "Laverne")

• You can see that we have query, and also WHERE clause, you can have additional WHERE clauses and similarly select clause.

• This is a standard method chain syntax that you can use in normal LINQ.

• LINQ to Objects or LINQ to SQL, any of the other LINQ providers you might be familiar with.

Let’s have a look into a simple example in which we will retrieve the customer whose first name is Laverne. Now it is a possibility that we might have more than one customer whose first name is Laverne, so we will retrieve the first one only.

using System; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Reflection; 

using HibernatingRhinos.Profiler.Appender.NHibernate; 
using NHibernate.Cfg; 
using NHibernate.Criterion; 
using NHibernate.Dialect; 
using NHibernate.Driver; 
using NHibernate.Linq;

namespace NHibernateDemo { 

   internal class Program {
	
      private static void Main() { 
		
         var cfg = ConfigureNHibernate(); 
         var sessionFactory = cfg.BuildSessionFactory();
         using(var session = sessionFactory.OpenSession()) 
         
         using(var tx = session.BeginTransaction()) {
            var customer = session.Query<Customer>() 
               .Where(c => c.FirstName == "Laverne").First(); 
            Console.WriteLine(customer); 
            tx.Commit(); 
         }
			
         Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to exit..."); 
         Console.ReadLine(); 
      }
		
      private static Configuration ConfigureNHibernate() { 
		
         NHibernateProfiler.Initialize(); 
         var cfg = new Configuration(); 
         
         cfg.DataBaseIntegration(x => { 
            x.ConnectionStringName = "default"; 
            x.Driver<SqlClientDriver>(); 
            x.Dialect<MsSql2008Dialect>(); 
            x.IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.RepeatableRead; 
            x.Timeout = 10; 
            x.BatchSize = 10; 
         }); 
         
         cfg.SessionFactory().GenerateStatistics();
         cfg.AddAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); 
         return cfg; 
      } 
   } 
}

Now when the above code is compiled and executed you will see the following output.

Laverne Hegmann (4e97c816-6bce-11e1-b095-6cf049ee52be)
   Points: 74
   HasGoldStatus: True
   MemberSince: 4/4/2009 12:00:00 AM (Utc)
   CreditRating: Neutral
   AverageRating: 0

   Orders:
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b095-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b096-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b097-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b098-6cf049ee52be
		
Press <ENTER> to exit...

Query Comprehension Syntax

There”s also the query comprehensions syntax, which looks a lot more like SQL using the from, where and select keywords.

So let”s have a look into the same example, but this time we use LINQ comprehensions syntax, which looks a lot more like SQL as shown in the following program.

using System; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Reflection; 

using HibernatingRhinos.Profiler.Appender.NHibernate; 
using NHibernate.Cfg; 
using NHibernate.Criterion; 
using NHibernate.Dialect; 
using NHibernate.Driver; 
using NHibernate.Linq;

namespace NHibernateDemo { 

   internal class Program { 
	
      private static void Main() { 
		
         var cfg = ConfigureNHibernate(); 
         var sessionFactory = cfg.BuildSessionFactory();
         using(var session = sessionFactory.OpenSession()) 
         
         using(var tx = session.BeginTransaction()) {
            var customer = (from c in session.Query<Customer>() 
               where c.FirstName == "Laverne" select c).First();
            Console.WriteLine(customer); 
            tx.Commit();
         }
         
         Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to exit..."); 
         Console.ReadLine(); 
      }
      
      private static Configuration ConfigureNHibernate() {
		
         NHibernateProfiler.Initialize(); 
         var cfg = new Configuration(); 
         
         cfg.DataBaseIntegration(x => { 
            x.ConnectionStringName = "default"; 
            x.Driver<SqlClientDriver>(); 
            x.Dialect<MsSql2008Dialect>(); 
            x.IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.RepeatableRead; 
            x.Timeout = 10; 
            x.BatchSize = 10; 
         }); 
         
         cfg.SessionFactory().GenerateStatistics();
         cfg.AddAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); 
         return cfg; 
      } 
   } 
}

Now let’s run this application again and you will see the following output.

Laverne Hegmann (4e97c816-6bce-11e1-b095-6cf049ee52be)
   Points: 74
   HasGoldStatus: True
   MemberSince: 4/4/2009 12:00:00 AM (Utc)
   CreditRating: Neutral
   AverageRating: 0

   Orders:
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b095-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b096-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b097-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ea14d96-6bce-11e1-b098-6cf049ee52be
		
Press <ENTER> to exit...

Let’s have a look into another example in which we will retrieve all those customers, whose FirstName starts with the letter H.

using System; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Reflection; 

using HibernatingRhinos.Profiler.Appender.NHibernate; 
using NHibernate.Cfg; 
using NHibernate.Criterion; 
using NHibernate.Dialect; 
using NHibernate.Driver; 
using NHibernate.Linq;

namespace NHibernateDemo { 

   internal class Program { 
	
      private static void Main() { 
		
         var cfg = ConfigureNHibernate(); 
         var sessionFactory = cfg.BuildSessionFactory();
         using(var session = sessionFactory.OpenSession()) 
         
         using(var tx = session.BeginTransaction()) {
            var customers = session.Query<Customer>() .Where(c =<
               c.FirstName.StartsWith("H"));
            
            foreach (var customer in customers.ToList()) { 
               Console.WriteLine(customer); 
            }
				
            tx.Commit(); 
         }
			
         Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to exit..."); 
         Console.ReadLine(); 
      }
		
      private static Configuration ConfigureNHibernate() { 
		
         NHibernateProfiler.Initialize(); 
         var cfg = new Configuration(); 
         
         cfg.DataBaseIntegration(x => { 
            x.ConnectionStringName = "default"; 
            x.Driver<SqlClientDriver>(); 
            x.Dialect<MsSql2008Dialect>(); 
            x.IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.RepeatableRead; 
            x.Timeout = 10; 
            x.BatchSize = 10; 
         }); 
			
         cfg.SessionFactory().GenerateStatistics();
         cfg.AddAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); 
         return cfg; 
      } 
   } 
}

Similarly, the query comprehension syntax will look like the following program.

using System; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Reflection; 

using HibernatingRhinos.Profiler.Appender.NHibernate; 
using NHibernate.Cfg; 
using NHibernate.Criterion; 
using NHibernate.Dialect; 
using NHibernate.Driver; 
using NHibernate.Linq;

namespace NHibernateDemo { 

   internal class Program { 
	
      private static void Main() { 
		
         var cfg = ConfigureNHibernate(); 
         var sessionFactory = cfg.BuildSessionFactory();
         using(var session = sessionFactory.OpenSession()) 
         
         using(var tx = session.BeginTransaction()) {
            var customers = from c in session.Query<Customer>() 
               where c.FirstName.StartsWith("H") select c;
            
            foreach (var customer in customers.ToList()) { 
               Console.WriteLine(customer); 
            }
				
            tx.Commit(); 
         }
			
         Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to exit..."); 
         Console.ReadLine(); 
      }
		
      private static Configuration ConfigureNHibernate() { 
		
         NHibernateProfiler.Initialize(); 
         var cfg = new Configuration(); 
         
         cfg.DataBaseIntegration(x => { 
            x.ConnectionStringName = "default"; 
            x.Driver<SqlClientDriver>(); 
            x.Dialect<MsSql2008Dialect>(); 
            x.IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.RepeatableRead; 
            x.Timeout = 10; 
            x.BatchSize = 10; 
         }); 
			
         cfg.SessionFactory().GenerateStatistics();
         cfg.AddAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); 
         return cfg; 
      } 
   }  
}

Let’s run this application again and you will see all the customers, whose first name starts with the alphabet H.

Herman Crooks (4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b15c-6cf049ee52be)
   Points: 74
   HasGoldStatus: True
   MemberSince: 12/3/2010 12:00:00 AM (Utc)
   CreditRating: Neutral
   AverageRating: 0

   Orders:
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b15d-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b15e-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b15f-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b160-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b161-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b162-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ead3480-6bce-11e1-b163-6cf049ee52be

Hudson Bins (4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2b7-6cf049ee52be)
   Points: 56
   HasGoldStatus: False
   MemberSince: 10/20/2008 12:00:00 AM (Utc)
   CreditRating: Terrible
   AverageRating: 0

   Orders:
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2b8-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2b9-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2ba-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2bb-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2bc-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2bd-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2be-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec03f80-6bce-11e1-b2bf-6cf049ee52be

Hettie Feest (4ec50240-6bce-11e1-b300-6cf049ee52be)
   Points: 82
   HasGoldStatus: False
   MemberSince: 4/10/2009 12:00:00 AM (Utc)
   CreditRating: Neutral
   AverageRating: 0

   Orders:
      Order Id: 4ec50240-6bce-11e1-b301-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec50240-6bce-11e1-b302-6cf049ee52be
      Order Id: 4ec50240-6bce-11e1-b303-6cf049ee52be
		
Press <ENTER> to exit...