How to randomize collection of EF models

Question

I have a User object that has a collection of Items.

How can I randomize the Items so they dont' appear in the exact same order everytime.

I'm currently ordering by SortOrder (integer), but this will obviously be in the same order everytime.

@foreach(UserItems ui in Model.User.Items.OrderBy(x => x.SortOrder))
{

}

Ufuk Hacıoğulları · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-19T19:43:43.807

3

Here's a little trick:

@foreach(UserItems ui in Model.User.Items.OrderBy(x => Guid.NewGuid()))
{

}

edited Sep 19 '13 at 19:43

answered Sep 19 '13 at 19:35

1

+1 for nice solution. But I am very curious how it is translated to T-SQL, do you know? – Alireza Sep 19 '13 at 19:36
+1 for creative thinking – Alex Art. Sep 19 '13 at 19:38
1

This may be sufficient for the asker's purposes, but it's important to note that this is not really random. – Mansfield Sep 19 '13 at 19:41
semi-random is fine. Does it matter if the items are lazy loaded or eager loaded? – loyalflow Sep 19 '13 at 19:43
@Ufuk Hacıoğulları So whay didn't you do it in your answer? Something like this is working: **@foreach(UserItems ui in Model.User.Items.AsEnumerable().OrderBy(x => Guid.NewGuid()))** – Alireza Sep 19 '13 at 19:47
1

@Alireza Take a look at this answer also. http://stackoverflow.com/a/4120132/205859. It looks like LINQ provider is able to translate it. – Ufuk Hacıoğulları Sep 19 '13 at 19:48
@user1361315 It shouldn't matter. Can you try it? – Ufuk Hacıoğulları Sep 19 '13 at 20:06

1 Answers1