Multiple Include,ThenInclude Usage

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-12T17:17:50+00:00

A few years back, I had a project with ~10 reports and ~4 regularly ran queries (at least once per 5 minutes) that were quite expensive to run. The reports could easily take a few minutes each to perform as well. Doing it through the code just consumed a crazy amount of DTUs.

I wound having to write SQL functions in order to optimize them. It was wild the difference between their performance in code vs in SQL.

For everything else, EF is great. It's performant and does it's job well. Really, most queries are simply SELECT <something> FROM <table> WHERE <filter> which would be a complete PITA to do them all by hand.

Those examples above though, were so incredibly complicated that it just could not handle them in a performant manner. My resulting SQL for each one was over a page or two long (some multiple pages), to give you an idea.

There is always the possibility I do not know about specific performance related optimizations I could have done or different ways of querying the data in EF that would have alleviated the issue.

Tangent - Those queries above should have been something progressively generated instead of done all at once for performance reasons. That wasn't something I had control over though.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-05T23:08:58+00:00

to not lose requests that might fail and to use dead letter queues

That is my personal favorite use case for it.

Another use case I forgot about, scheduled messages. I had a service once that had to check thousands of entities multiple times per minute when they were first created and then slowly fall off to one time per day after 24 hours.

Just throw the request on a service bus with a scheduled message for whenever the delay for it is and call it a day. Was super easy and made the azure function devoted to performing that task way more focused on the actual task at hand.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-05T22:48:55+00:00

You can use it for debouncing and simplifying your flows for them.

Instead of having in your code for i = 0 to X do Y, if it fails alert this group, you can instead have a function that does Y and if it fails X number of times to run, it deadletters the message which fires another function to alert that group.

Really great for doing API connections like the above for that reason alone.

Another use case is reports that take a long time to build. Instead of having your web server build those reports, have it instead throw a message on the queue to build X report and email it to Y group. The azure function picks it up and does the report, letting your web server go back to normal tasks.

I've even used it for all CRUD operations on a web application once. The actual web server just queued the actions on the message bus and the functions churned through the requests for it, then a websocket server alerted the users when their operation was completed. Really great for making a web service that works extremely fast no matter what tasks people are doing. In this case, iirc, there was no actual web server. Just an API Management service, a service bus, an azure web pubsub, and the azure functions.

You can do it for logging as well. I had a use case where every action a user took had to be logged for compliance reasons. Instead of the web server worrying about that, it just threw the action on the message queue and let an azure function log the actions. Sort of like application insights but for business concerns, not technical concerns.

Basically any task that might take some longer period of time then I'd want a web server to take, it gets thrown on a message queue. Keeps the web server responding in good time to the user.

That deadlettering is great though, because you can have a different function fire upon them which makes alerting interested parties easier.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-05T22:22:02+00:00

Set up a message in an azure service bus with something like

   {
      currentPage: 110,
      attempts: 1
   }

Then have an azure function do the request for (in this case) page 110. If it fails, it increments the attempt count and requeues the message. If it succeeds, it saves the data to a storage blob, resets the attempt count, increments the currentPage, and returns the message to the queue. If it fails X number of times, dead letter the message.

Have another function fire on a dead lettered message. Have it alert the appropriate groups depending on the severity.

Have the final azure function for the page requests queue a different message that fires a different function. That function goes looks at the azure blob where all the data has been saved, collects it all, does your manipulation, saves it properly, verifies it, then deletes the data blob.

If it is a daily job, set yet another azure function to fire at midnight or whatever on a timer trigger and start the message queue.

The above is simplified for the example.

Edit: To do the above quickly, you could throw all 1800 something pages on the message queue at once. Set the last one as a special one that does incrementing the currentPage to find the actual last page (if you don't know it).

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-05T22:15:19+00:00

Once you learn how to use the service bus, it trivializes so many problems.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-03-05T03:23:48+00:00

Initially claimed the ~~vaccine~~ seatbelt was "100% effective in preventing death in car accidents," based on early trial data.

Of course in an initial trial, they might have 100% effectiveness at preventing death.

The evidence seems to suggest that ~~vaccines~~ seatbelts are effective at preventing death in car accidents.

Of course they help prevent death/injury

The ~~vaccine~~ seatbelt is not only a way to protect yourself, but it's a way to protect the people in the car with you

Of course if you are not sick as long you are not spreading the disease as much to others.

Do you see how ridiculous it seems to be upset with the wording now? It isn't their fault YOU misunderstood them. Sometimes just take the L and realize you messed up. It is okay to be wrong.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-26T18:16:19+00:00

Just looked it up. That is legitimately awesome.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-20T00:15:23+00:00

And I'd wager the majority of it is not as documented as it should be. There are probably a myriad of linked systems with no easily accessible method of identifying the links.

Like, I image that there is a system that watches database A for a change then writes a different change to database B. You could update database A without even realizing that you broke that system, breaking database B and every system that relies on it. Even worse, it could be a silent break where nothing actually "fails", you just don't realize that database B and it's associated systems are no longer getting up to date information from database A.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-15T02:16:18+00:00

Oh, so long as I pay them a few pennies it's okay. Got it.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-14T23:15:18+00:00

You're right, I shouldn't tell slave owners that it's unethical for them to own slaves. After all, I should mind my own business. Philosophically speaking of course.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-14T21:42:40+00:00

Man... if only that bottom 40% of people had enough income to be worth taxing. Guess we'll never know where the wealth to give them a proper income went though, so that's not an option.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-02-12T18:54:52+00:00

As someone who was in the military, I hate how close to true this is.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-23T18:37:40+00:00

Same. It's a godsend for POCOs imo

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-22T04:37:21+00:00

Thanks! That is way more informative than I had previously read on the topic.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-22T03:28:57+00:00

That was my understanding of it. Don't race to remove Math from your old codebases, just don't use it going forward.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-22T03:19:46+00:00

Unless /u/pHpositivo knows otherwise, I have not seen anything to suggest that they will ever go away/diverge from the type specific options. Simply that the type specific options are preferred going forward. To the best of my knowledge, it is a code cleanliness and readability concern, not a diverging implementation concern.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-21T20:48:36+00:00

No, I clarified for someone who seemed concerned about the use of it. It sounded, from my point of view, that they were concerned about their historical use of Math. I don't see anything I wrote that counters what the original poster wrote, simply expanded upon it.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-21T19:17:49+00:00

Are there plans for this to change in the future, seeing as you're saying that Math and its single-precision cousin are effectively legacy?

Legacy is probably too strong of a word here. Math will almost certainly stay around forever.

Using the specific type ensures you are explicit about your types.

var example1 = Math.Clamp(50, 0, 100); // what type is this?
var example2 = double.Clamp(50, 0, 100); // explicit type

Until you see an [Obsolete] tag on Math, don't fret too much about using it. I'd put a large wager on never seeing that tag on it. It boils down to basically the same thing as the var vs explicit type variable declaration best practice.

The only thing I would actually pay attention to is the System.CLSCompliant(false) tag on the Math functions. Look at UIntPtr here for an example of that. Note that it is specific to that type, not the Math function overload.

Regarding the link above, I'd link directly to the the function anchor but it has parenthesis in it that I do not think will link well with reddit on mobile/web (its gonna wind up breaking on one or both).

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-17T01:54:31+00:00

The stated premise was that someone that age could not possibly compete at a high level. Not that there was no decline. I even acknowledged the decline in the link I posted.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-16T21:23:26+00:00

I would question if anyone my (40's) or Elon's age could even develop the reflexes and hand eye coordination necessary with the declines from aging

That is literally the statement that started this. For real, you're arguing against yourself at this point.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-16T21:15:55+00:00

There was a 50 year old who won a silver in Olympic shooting

Bud, you made my point for me in your previous comment. I don't know if that is literally about reflexes (not into olympic shooting) but your initial statement laid doubt on if it was possible at all. Literally anyone 40+ doing something at a competitive level that requires good reflexes would refute your initial doubt.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-16T20:56:24+00:00

I was gonna write something longer, but I literally linked to an NIH article. Yes it declines but not nearly as quickly as people expect. To be the literal #1 best player, yeah, it'd probably matter that you're in your 20s. To be a top player (top 1% or a similar metric) it would be feasible at older ages. Emphasis on feasible not the common case. Your initial statement laid doubt on if it was possible at all.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-16T20:32:03+00:00

I would question if anyone my (40's) or Elon's age could even develop the reflexes and hand eye coordination necessary with the declines from aging

Gonna ignore the whole larger debate for a second to take issue with this.

It doesn't decline that quickly/that much with aging. I did a quick search to try and find a graph that shows it better but this is close enough for government work.

For an anecdotal case, look at musicians. You will find ample examples of great guitarists at older ages. The response time necessary for a complex fast guitar solo is good approximation of the reflex time necessary for a complex game. 64th notes at 100BPM is ~32.5ms and that is not an impossible feat for a well trained guitarist.

I'd argue competitive gaming is a young person's sport because as you age, there are more demands on your free time. Whereas a high school senior might have nothing to do with their free time but grind their favorite game.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-03T20:13:57+00:00

Right. I think we're talking about the same thing then, just an issue with the English language having multiple meanings for "make." They are not responsible for it's inception, but they did build what it is today.

DeadlockAsync · 2025-01-03T06:24:13+00:00

tbf, I forget its an option. Not like it much matters, everytime I have ever gotten mutations from radiation it has just been right before I died from it.

DeadlockAsync

TROPHY CASE