This is what I have and it keeps returning null.
It doesn't recognize the Convert.toInt32 when I add a where statement
var maxTopID = (from max in dbcontext.Topics.Local
               select max.TopicID).Max();
This is what I have and it keeps returning null.
It doesn't recognize the Convert.toInt32 when I add a where statement
var maxTopID = (from max in dbcontext.Topics.Local
               select max.TopicID).Max();
 
    
    How about converting the TopicID in SELECT and use String.IsNullOrEmpty() to remove empty string, like:
 var maxTopID = (from max in dbcontext.Topics.Local
                 where !String.IsNullOrEmpty(max.TopicID)
                 select Convert.ToInt32(max.TopicID)).Max();
See the Demo
 
    
    Check for the null condition as mentioned in below query
var maxTopID = (from max in dbcontext.Topics.Local
                 where  max.TopicId != null
                 select max.TopicID).Max();
 
    
    I think you are saying that TopicID is string and you want to convert it to int
var list= (from max in dbcontext.Topics.Local
                     where  max.TopicId != null
                     select max.TopicID).ToList();
int max=0;
if (list.Count() !=0)
max=list.Select(int.Parse).ToList().Max();
max will contain max value from list which is converted to list of integer
