How do you perform a left outer join using linq extension methods

For a (left outer) join of a table Bar with a table Foo on Foo.Foo_Id = Bar.Foo_Id in lambda notation:

var qry = Foo.GroupJoin(
          Bar, 
          foo => foo.Foo_Id,
          bar => bar.Foo_Id,
          (x,y) => new { Foo = x, Bars = y })
       .SelectMany(
           x => x.Bars.DefaultIfEmpty(),
           (x,y) => new { Foo=x.Foo, Bar=y});

Whilst the accepted answer works and is good for Linq to Objects it bugged me that the SQL query isn't just a straight Left Outer Join.

The following code relies on the LinqKit Project that allows you to pass expressions and invoke them to your query.

static IQueryable<TResult> LeftOuterJoin<TSource,TInner, TKey, TResult>(
     this IQueryable<TSource> source, 
     IQueryable<TInner> inner, 
     Expression<Func<TSource,TKey>> sourceKey, 
     Expression<Func<TInner,TKey>> innerKey, 
     Expression<Func<TSource, TInner, TResult>> result
    ) {
    return from a in source.AsExpandable()
            join b in inner on sourceKey.Invoke(a) equals innerKey.Invoke(b) into c
            from d in c.DefaultIfEmpty()
            select result.Invoke(a,d);
}

It can be used as follows

Table1.LeftOuterJoin(Table2, x => x.Key1, x => x.Key2, (x,y) => new { x,y});

Marc Gravell's answer turn into an extension method that support the IQueryable<T> interface is given in this answer and with added support for C# 8.0 NRT reads as follows:

#nullable enable
using LinqKit;
using LinqKit.Core;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

...

/// <summary>
/// Left join queryable. Linq to SQL compatible. IMPORTANT: any Includes must be put on the source collections before calling this method.
/// </summary>
public static IQueryable<TResult> LeftJoin<TOuter, TInner, TKey, TResult>(
    this IQueryable<TOuter> outer,
    IQueryable<TInner> inner,
    Expression<Func<TOuter, TKey>> outerKeySelector,
    Expression<Func<TInner, TKey>> innerKeySelector,
    Expression<Func<TOuter, TInner?, TResult>> resultSelector)
{
    return outer
        .AsExpandable()
        .GroupJoin(
            inner,
            outerKeySelector,
            innerKeySelector,
            (outerItem, innerItems) => new { outerItem, innerItems })
        .SelectMany(
            joinResult => joinResult.innerItems.DefaultIfEmpty(),
            (joinResult, innerItem) =>
                resultSelector.Invoke(joinResult.outerItem, innerItem));
}

I have this question bookmarked and need to reference it every year or so. Each time I revisit this, I find I have forgotten how it works. Here's a more detailed explanation of what's happening.

GroupJoin is like a mix of GroupBy and Join. GroupJoin basically groups the outer collection by the join key, then joins the groupings to the inner collection on the join key. Suppose we have customers and orders. If you GroupJoin on the respective IDs, the result is an enumerable of {Customer, IGrouping<int, Order>}. The reason GroupJoin is useful is because all inner objects are represented even if the outer collection contains no matching objects. For customers with no orders, the IGrouping<int, Order> is simply empty. Once we have { Customer, IGrouping<int, Order> }, we can use as-is, filter out results that have no orders, or flatten with SelectMany to get results like a traditional LINQ Join.

Here's a full example if anyone wants to step through with the debugger and see how this works:

using System;
using System.Linq;
                    
public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        //Create some customers
        var customers = new Customer[]
        {
            new Customer(1, "Alice"),
            new Customer(2, "Bob"),
            new Customer(3, "Carol")
        };
        
        //Create some orders for Alice and Bob, but none for Carol
        var orders = new Order[]
        {
            new Order(1, 1),
            new Order(2, 1),
            new Order(3, 1),
            new Order(4, 2),
            new Order(5, 2)
        };

        //Group join customers to orders.
        //Result is IEnumerable<Customer, IGrouping<int, Order>>. 
        //Every customer will be present. 
        //If a customer has no orders, the IGrouping<> will be empty.
        var groupJoined = customers.GroupJoin(orders,
                              c => c.ID,
                              o => o.CustomerID,
                              (customer, order) => (customer, order));

        //Display results. Prints:
        //    Customer: Alice (CustomerID=1), Orders: 3
        //    Customer: Bob (CustomerID=2), Orders: 2
        //    Customer: Carol (CustomerID=3), Orders: 0
        foreach(var result in groupJoined)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Customer: {result.customer.Name} (CustomerID={result.customer.ID}), Orders: {result.order.Count()}");
        }
        
        //Flatten the results to look more like a LINQ join
        //Produces an enumerable of { Customer, Order }
        //All customers represented, order is null if customer has no orders
        var flattened = groupJoined.SelectMany(z => z.order.DefaultIfEmpty().Select(y => new { z.customer, y }));

        //Get only results where the outer table is null.
        //roughly equivalent to: 
        //SELECT * 
        //FROM A 
        //LEFT JOIN B 
        //ON A.ID = B.ID 
        //WHERE B.ID IS NULL;
        var noMatch = groupJoined.Where(z => z.order.DefaultIfEmpty().Count() == 0);
    }
}

class Customer
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Customer(int iD, string name)
    {
        ID = iD;
        Name = name;
    }
}

class Order
{
    static Random Random { get; set; } = new Random();

    public int ID { get; set; }
    public int CustomerID { get; set; }
    public decimal Amount { get; set; }

    public Order(int iD, int customerID)
    {
        ID = iD;
        CustomerID = customerID;
        Amount = (decimal)Random.Next(1000, 10000) / 100;
    }
}