I am passing a string back to my controller then trying to do some raw sql on entity framework.

I was using linq but I ran into something that I need to write fast so I am trying to get raw sql to work. This is my first project in mvc so I am a newbie but here is my controller code

public ActionResult Index(string Vendors)
    {
        if (Vendors != "")
        {


            string query = "SELECT V.VENDOR_NAME, SUM(POL.ORDER_QTY * POL.UNIT_PRICE) AS AMOUNT_SPENT, MONTH(PO.ORDER_DATE) AS MO, YEAR(PO.ORDER_DATE) AS YR, M.ITEM_TYPE AS ITEM_TYPE "
                            + "FROM PO_LINE POL"
                            + "JOIN PURCH_ORD PO ON PO.PO_NUM = POL.PO_NUM"
                            + "JOIN VENDOR V ON V.VENDOR_ID = PO.VENDOR_ID"
                            + "JOIN MATERIAL M ON M.ITEM_ID = POL.ITEM_ID"
                            + "WHERE V.VENDOR_NAME =" + Vendors
                            + "GROUP BY V.VENDOR_NAME, M.ITEM_TYPE, YEAR(PO.ORDER_DATE), MONTH(PO.ORDER_DATE)"
                            + "ORDER BY V.VENDOR_NAME";

            var data = db.Database.SqlQuery<Reports>(query);
            ViewBag.Vendors = new SelectList(db.Vendors, "VENDOR_NAME", "VENDOR_NAME");
            return View(query.ToList());
        }

this is my modal code

           using System;
           using System.Collections.Generic;
           using System.Linq;
           using System.Text;


           namespace GreenfieldGroup2.Models.Reports
      {
         public class Reports
     {
    public string VENDOR_NAME { get; set; }
    public decimal AMOUNT_SPENT { get; set; }
    public string ITEM_TYPE { get; set; }
    public DateTime ORDER_DATE { get; set; }
    public string ITEM_NAME { get; set; }
    public int STOCK_QTY { get; set; }
    public string WARD_NAME { get; set; }
    public string WARD_LOCATION { get; set; }
    public int ITEM_ID { get; set; }
    public DateTime DEL_DATE { get; set; }
}

}

The model item passed into the dictionary is of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List1[System.Char]', but this dictionary requires a model item of type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable1[GreenfieldGroup2.Models.Reports.Reports]'.

is my error I am not sure what this means. Below is my view Code

         @model IEnumerable<GreenfieldGroup2.Models.Reports.Reports>
      @{
         ViewBag.Title = "Index";
      }

     <br />
       <head>

<style>
    body {
    padding-top: 100px
    }
</style>
  </head>

    <body>
   @using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "PurchasingReport", FormMethod.Get))
    {
       <table>
           <tr>
    <td align="left"><text>Select a Vendor:</text>

    </td>
    <td align="left">@Html.DropDownList("Vendors", "All Vendords")</td>

</tr>
<tr>
    <td align="Left">
        <input type="submit" value="submit" onsubmit="return Verify()"/>
    </td>
</tr>

</table>
}
<table border="1">
<tr>
   <th>

        @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.VENDOR_NAME)
       </th>

    <th>
        @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.AMOUNT_SPENT)
    </th>
    <th>
        @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ITEM_TYPE)
    </th>
    <th>
        @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ORDER_DATE)
    </th>


</tr>

@foreach (var item in Model)
{
    <tr>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.VENDOR_NAME)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.AMOUNT_SPENT)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ITEM_TYPE)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ORDER_DATE)
        </td>

    </tr>
}
 </table>


 </body>

any help with would be gratefully appreciated this is for a school project

Solution

You should change your return statement

return View(query.ToList());

to the following:

return View(data);

As I understand from the code you have posted, below

var data = db.Database.SqlQuery<Reports>(query);

you assign a reference to a sequence of Reportsobjects to the data. In other words a the type of data is IEnumerable<GreenfieldGroup2.Models.Reports.Reports> as I can infer from your code.

So that is needed to be passed to the View and not the sql statement, which is just a string.