Multiple "order by" in LINQ

Using non-lambda, query-syntax LINQ, you can do this:

var movies = from row in _db.Movies 
             orderby row.Category, row.Name
             select row;

[EDIT to address comment] To control the sort order, use the keywords ascending (which is the default and therefore not particularly useful) or descending, like so:

var movies = from row in _db.Movies 
             orderby row.Category descending, row.Name
             select row;

Add "new":

var movies = _db.Movies.OrderBy( m => new { m.CategoryID, m.Name })

That works on my box. It does return something that can be used to sort. It returns an object with two values.

Similar, but different to sorting by a combined column, as follows.

var movies = _db.Movies.OrderBy( m => (m.CategoryID.ToString() + m.Name))

This should work for you:

var movies = _db.Movies.OrderBy(c => c.Category).ThenBy(n => n.Name)

Use the following line on your DataContext to log the SQL activity on the DataContext to the console - then you can see exactly what your LINQ statements are requesting from the database:

_db.Log = Console.Out

The following LINQ statements:

var movies = from row in _db.Movies 
             orderby row.CategoryID, row.Name
             select row;

AND

var movies = _db.Movies.OrderBy(m => m.CategoryID).ThenBy(m => m.Name);

produce the following SQL:

SELECT [t0].ID, [t0].[Name], [t0].CategoryID
FROM [dbo].[Movies] as [t0]
ORDER BY [t0].CategoryID, [t0].[Name]

Whereas, repeating an OrderBy in LINQ, appears to reverse the resulting SQL output:

var movies = from row in _db.Movies 
             orderby row.CategoryID
             orderby row.Name
             select row;

AND

var movies = _db.Movies.OrderBy(m => m.CategoryID).OrderBy(m => m.Name);

produce the following SQL (Name and CategoryId are switched):

SELECT [t0].ID, [t0].[Name], [t0].CategoryID
FROM [dbo].[Movies] as [t0]
ORDER BY [t0].[Name], [t0].CategoryID