Entity Framework Custom SQL Query returning generic type

Question

I'm trying to make a generic reporting system so that I can add reports to my program on the fly, rather than issuing a new version of the program every time I have to add in a report.
Currently, I have it partly working;
My custom report SQL is stored in a table, along with the report name. The report name is used for the buttons for the user to click, when they click the button, I want the SQL to execute and be bound to a gridview, so it's as generic as possible.

This seems to be where the troubles come though. Getting the SQL and executing it is fine, but binding it to a gridview seems impossible, I only get one column, called Column, that displays 1 row with a value of System.Object.

I think the problem is because I'm returning data from multiple tables, i.e.

SELECT c.CertificateName, e.EntityName, 
       ce.CertificateDate, ce.CertificateExpiry, ce.CertificateNumber 
FROM FCERTSTest.dbo.CertificateEntries ce 
INNER JOIN FCERTSTest.dbo.Certificates c 
ON c.CertificateID = ce.Certificate_ID 
INNER JOIN FCERTSTest.dbo.Entities e 
ON e.EntityID = ce.Entity_ID 
WHERE FirstNotificationSent = '1'

I'm currently using

using (DBContainer db = new DBContainer())
{
    grid.DataSource = db.Database.SqlQuery<dynamic>(SQLCommand).ToList();
}

I've tried replacing dynamic with object and get the same problem... I understand that the best solution would be to have a custom class and replace dynamic with that custom class, but then I lose the benefits of it being generic as a different report may not return the same results and I would need a new custom class...

Answer 1

Use SqlDataAdapter and DataSet. EF doesn't work with "dynamic queries" where you don't have special type for result set.