Hi Mikkel.

This:

IPublishedContent ipc =Umbraco.Content(contentId);

Makes a call to the cache to create the parent object that I don't need, just for the sake of being used as a reference in the next statement.  I don't really know much about how the Umbraco cache works yet but if this was linq to sql then it would be generating two SQL queries when one should be sufficient.

Your example doesnt work as needs the content method but lets say you called it "Umbraco.Content(id).Children.Where..." then it would return a dynamic object that to my understanding does not support linq querying.

To get round this Umbraco has added extension methods that allow us to pass Linq queries as text strings.  I have only found brief documentation on this, look under complex querying here - https://our.umbraco.org/Documentation/Reference/Mvc/querying ;

After a good nights sleep I figured out it was not returning an IEnumerableit was actually returning DynamicPublishedContentList. I was still confused though as it didnt contain definition for OrderByDescendng but after checking the code for the OrderBy method - https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/blob/ded1def8e2e7ea1a4fd0f849cc7a3f1f97cd8242/src/Umbraco.Web/Dynamics/Grouping.cs

I could see it just looks for "desc" or "descending" at the end of the string.

So the final working statement is:

DynamicPublishedContentList news = Umbraco.Content(contentId).Children
    .Where("ContentType.Alias == \"NewsItem\"")
    .OrderBy("CreateDate desc")
    .Skip(start)
    .Take(pageSize);

I must admit I do not know how this all comes together under the hood.  Is a dynamic query worse performance that a strongly typed query?  Is there a way I am missing to do this as a strongly typed query in one statement?

I realise I am being pedantic but I like to be confident I am doing things the right way.

 ** EDIT **

Been googling and it seems it is recommended to always query in strongly typed way.  So original way with 2 calls is the best?

** EDIT **

Ahh, I have been very silly.  There is seperate method to return typed content.  Query should be:

IEnumerable<IPublishedContent> news = Umbraco.TypedContent(contentId).Children
                    .Where(x => x.ContentType.Alias == "NewsItem")
                    .OrderByDescending(x => x.CreateDate)
                    .Skip(start)
                    .Take(pageSize);

Oh well, I am learning slowly but surely.