Why should you care?

Most ShopNest endpoints are reads: product detail, order history, category browse. Correct reads prevent accidental tracking overhead.

See it live — copy this example

Paste into a .NET project with EF Core packages, then run with LocalDB/SQL Server (dotnet ef / dotnet run).

var byId = await _context.Products
    .FirstOrDefaultAsync(p => p.Id == productId);

var recent = await _context.Orders
    .Where(o => o.CustomerId == customerId)
    .OrderByDescending(o => o.OrderDate)
    .Take(10)
    .ToListAsync();

What happened?

• FirstOrDefaultAsync returns one row or null.
• Where filters client orders.
• Take limits rows — important before materializing large tables.

Practice next

1. Fetch product by id and return 404 when null in API.
2. List last ten orders for a customer with OrderByDescending + Take.
3. Enable SQL logging to read generated SELECT statements.
4. Replace Take(10) with Skip(page * 10).Take(10) for manual paging.
5. Use AsSplitQuery in a later lesson when Include grows — preview with simple read first.

Remember

LINQ reads translate to SELECT. Terminal methods execute the query. Handle null results in API layers.

ShopNest order history API

Account page loads ten recent orders via filtered read without tracking entire Order table.

Outcome: Fast response for millions of customers using indexed CustomerId + OrderDate.