Case Statements in LINQ query - AnonymousType to String? - asp.net

Question

I basically have the following:
public ActionResult Search(string searchString, string clientNo, int status = -1)
{
var statusLst = new List<string>();
var statusNoQry = from b in db.Briefs
orderby b.Status
select new
{
status = (
b.Status == 0 ? "Requested" :
b.Status == 1 ? "In Progress" :
"Undefined"
)
};
statusLst.AddRange(statusNoQry.Distinct()); <<--- ERROR HERE
ViewBag.status = new SelectList(statusLst);
var ClientNoLst = new List<string>();
var ClientNoQry = from b in db.Briefs
orderby b.Client_No_
where b.Client_Type == 0
select b.Client_No_;
ClientNoLst.AddRange(ClientNoQry.Distinct());
ViewBag.clientNo = new SelectList(ClientNoLst);
var briefs = from b in db.Briefs
select b;
Session["searchString"] = searchString;
Session["clientNo"] = clientNo;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchString))
{
briefs = briefs.Where(s => s.Client_No_.Contains(searchString) || s.Name.Contains(searchString));
}
if ((status > -1) && (status < 10))
{
briefs = briefs.Where(y => y.Status == status);
}
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(clientNo))
return View(briefs);
else
return View(briefs.Where(x => x.Client_No_ == clientNo));
}
However, I receive the following area:
Error 7 Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Linq.IQueryable<AnonymousType#1>' to 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<string>'
Status is of type int but I would like to cast it to string for my dropdownlist. I'm quite new to all this, what is the appropriate way of achieving this?

Answer 1

Your selector is returning an anonymous type:
select new
{
status = (
b.Status == 0 ? "Requested" :
b.Status == 1 ? "In Progress" :
"Undefined"
)
};
You need to return a set of strings though. The error is telling you exactly what the problem is.
select
(b.Status == 0 ? "Requested" :
b.Status == 1 ? "In Progress" :
"Undefined");
Edit - You didn't post the rest of the method, but from you have your also not disposing your context object, which can cause problems. Normally you wrap this in a using clause.