Troubleshooting LINQ exceptions.

Once I was testing a deployment I made of an application that used LINQ to SQL, and I received the following exception when I ran it:

Exception thrown: at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ConsumeMetaData() at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData() at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior,
RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader
(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior) at System.Data.Common.DbCommand.ExecuteReader() at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.SqlProvider.Execute(Expression query, QueryInfo queryInfo, IObjectReaderFactory factory, Object[] parentArgs, Object[] userArgs, ICompiledSubQuery[] subQueries, Object lastResult) at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.SqlProvider.ExecuteAll(Expression query, QueryInfo[]
queryInfos, IObjectReaderFactory factory, Object[] userArguments, ICompiledSubQuery[] subQueries) at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.SqlProvider.System.Data.Linq.Provider.IProvider.Execute(Expression query) at System.Data.Linq.DataQuery`1.System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() at
System.Collections.Generic.List`1..ctor(IEnumerable`1 collection) at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source) at Canwest.Broadcasting.Windows.Forms.Translator.translatePlaylistsForChannels() at
Canwest.Broadcasting.Windows.Forms.Translator.translateAllPlaylistFiles() at
Canwest.Broadcasting.Web.PlaylistAsrun.PlaylistAsrunService.RunTranslation() in
H:\ProgramCode\Win32_Applications\PlaylistAsrunTranslator\PlaylistAsrunASPNETWebService\PlaylistAsrunService.asmx.cs:line 151

This exception was being thrown at the point where I was dumping the results of a LINQ to SQL result set to a List by using the ToList() method. When digging deeper, I realized the result set being returned was based on a template in the LINQ designer (dbml) file, which expected the SQL table to have one more column then the table actually contained. I added the missing column to the table and the error message went away.

The lesson is: when receiving exceptions like the above, check to make sure the database tables on the database server match what is shown in the LINQ designer view. One can just use SQL Management Studio to make a graphical comparison.