[Solved]-Grabbing Just The Top Entry From A LINQ Query-LINQ,C#

you could also call result.take(1) the difference between take(1) and first() is that first returns a single object, and take returns an ienumerable of the type.

if date is a reference type then you may consider the coalesce operator.

var lastdate = result.firstordefault() ?? new date();

if you're trying to find the latest date, you could use the "max" function (which i believe linq2sql will convert to a sql max operation):

var maxdate = db.table.max(a => a.date)

firstordefault() and as a bonus, you can use lastordefault() for... you guessed it...

[edit] -- oh, sudden rush there with the same answer :)

var lastdate = db.table.orderby(a => a.date).firstordefault();

call first().
for example:

lastdate = 
    (from a in db.table
     orderby a.date descending
     select a.date
    ).first();

if the table might be empty, call firstordefault(), which will return datetime.minvalue instead of throwing an exception.