How to randomize collection of EF models [duplicate]

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 · 2013-09-19 19:43:43Z

3

Here's a little trick:

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

answered Sep 19, 2013 at 19:35

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7 Comments

+1 for nice solution. But I am very curious how it is translated to T-SQL, do you know?

+1 for creative thinking

This may be sufficient for the asker's purposes, but it's important to note that this is not really random.

semi-random is fine. Does it matter if the items are lazy loaded or eager loaded?

@Alireza Take a look at this answer also. stackoverflow.com/a/4120132/205859. It looks like LINQ provider is able to translate it.

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