title: Linq - How to query specific columns and return a lists
body: <p>I am trying to write a linq query that will only return certain columns from my entity object into a list object.  </p>
  
  <p>Below is my code which produces an error(can't implicitly convert a generic list of anonymous types to a generic list of type TBLPROMOTION):</p>
  
  <pre><code>IQueryable&lt;TBLPROMOTION&gt; matches = webStoreContext.TBLPROMOTION.Include("TBLSTORE").Include("LKPROMOTIONTYPE");
  
  List&lt;TBLPROMOTION&gt; promotionInfo = null;
  
  promotionInfo = (from p in matches
                  orderby p.PROMOTION_NM descending
                  select new { p.EFFECTIVE_DT, p.EXPIRE_DT, p.IS_ACTIVE, 
                  p.PROMOTION_DESC, p.PROMOTION_ID, p.PROMOTION_NM }).ToList();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What would be the best way to accomplish this. I do not want to do a "select p" in this case and return all the columns associated with the query.</p>
  
  <p>thanks in advance,
  Billy</p>