Entity Framework fuzzy search on list of strings - string

Question

EntityFrameworkCore 3.1.14
So i'm looking to implement a search where you can add multiple different elements to a search which will pull the relevant data from the DB (including lists of search params).
I'm fairly new to EF, but couldn't find anything on this..
The requirement is this:
if the list is empty - don't filter (there might be other search params)
if the list contains some strings, do a fuzzy search - i.e. string.Contains(string2)
it works in code - e.g.
var list = new List<string> { "aaa", "bbb" };
var a = new List<string> { "a" };
var c = new List<string> { "c" };
var ab = list.Any(listString => a.Any(aString => listString.Contains(aString))); //returns true
var ac = list.Any(listString => c.Any(cString => listString.Contains(cString))); //returns false
However, it doesn't work in entityframework.. i have tried using the below (only 1 of the lines in the WHERE at a time - result of the search is at the end of the row)
var data = context.Meals
.Where(x =>
(!descriptions.Any() || x.Ingredients.Any(db => descriptions.Any(input => input.Contains(db.Description)))) --FAIL
(!descriptions.Any() || x.Ingredients.Any(db => descriptions.Any(input => db.Description.Contains(input)))) --FAIL
(!descriptions.Any() || descriptions.Any(input => x.Ingredients.Any(db => db.Description.Contains(input)))) --FAIL
(!descriptions.Any() || descriptions.Any(input => x.Ingredients.Any(db => input.Contains(db.Description)))) --FAIL
(!descriptions.Any() || x.Ingredients.Any(db => db.Description.Contains(descriptions.First()))) --PASS - but restricted to using .First()
(!descriptions.Any() || x.Ingredients.Any(db => descriptions.Contains(db.Description))) --PASS - but no fuzzy logic
).ToList();
ERROR MESSAGE:
The LINQ expression ... could not be translated. Either rewrite the query in a form that can be translated, or switch to client evaluation explicitly by inserting a call to either AsEnumerable(), AsAsyncEnumerable(), ToList(), or ToListAsync().

Answer 1

i found a solution - which is to loop through the list of strings outside EF and for each element, add a new where clause to the EF object..
However, this fix seems more like a workaround, than a proper implementation for using fuzzy search on 2 sets of strings
var data = context.Meals;
if(descriptions.Any()){
descriptions.ForEach(input => data = data.Where(x => x.Any(db => db.Ingredient.Contains(input))))
}
return data.ToList();