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What Is C# Entity Framework? A Comprehensive Guide

We can create manually this class and configure it in DbContext like below or we can create all models of all or specific objects from Database. It is noted here that  EF is going to check if there is a database on which to perform a first comparison. The command will create a directory in the project named Migrations folder, which will initially contain only Configuration.cs file. This approach first targets a database that does not exist and then creates it. It allows the developers to define and make new models with C# and .NET classes.

what is entity framework in c#

We add a new element to the solution, and are going to retrieve, from the menu of Visual C # Items »Date, an object of type ADO.NET Entity Data Model, which we will call “TechnetModello “. Entity Framework tutorial provides basic and advanced concepts of Entity Framework. Our Entity Framework tutorial is designed for beginners and professionals. When an entity has the property of generic collection type, it is known as collective navigation property. We can track changes when we use for all type of operations or execution. The following figure describes where the Entity Framework present in your application.

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Let us first consider the Database-First mode, which – as we said – is mainly directed to the existing database, i.e from which to derive a model. We recall once again that, at least during the writing of this article, by EF7 onwards, this mode has been suppressed in favor of Code-First and is an important point to keep in mind, when you are going to evaluate the analysis of a solution. This approach is an alternative for the code-first approach and the model-first approach. It creates the model and codes from the database in the project and connects them with the database and developer. This model is best suitable for new projects where the database does not exist. This model is stored using the EDMX file and can be viewed and edited by the developer.

  • By browsing in the classes the wizard has created for us, we note two of particular interest, namely hierarchically – are daughters of TechnetModello.tt files-  Articoli.cs and Famiglie.cs.
  • Most of the time you don’t have to write any SQL yourself, and iterating is very easy using your language built in functions.
  • In the model, we have determined that the two entities Articles and Families were linked together.
  • Thus, we see that in the Articles table creation instruction is the new field CostoStandard.
  • With the Entity Framework, developers can work at a higher level of abstraction when developers deal with the data.

Let’s see in detail, starting from a class; what in the case of Database-First was not immediately visible. Add back an object of type ADO.NET Entity Data Model, which we will call “TechnetModelloCF”. The steps to follow are similar to those already seen previously, with the exception of the mode to be selected, which in this case will be “Code-First from Database”. We continue the remaining steps, as you did in the case of Database-First. In this article, we will see how to use Entity Framework in C# Applications using Visual Studio. The examples in this article and probably in the next, will be C # used under WinForms, but – as mentioned – this choice is not going to affect a different intended use that the developer may reasonably request.

What is Entity Framework in .NET Framework?

This tutorial is designed for those who want to learn how to start the development of Entity Framework in their application. EF API infers INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands based on the state of entities when the SaveChanges() method is called. The ChangeTrack keeps track of the states of each entity as and when an action is performed. Learn Entity Framework using simple yet practical examples on EntityFrameworkTutorial.net for free. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our terms
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what is entity framework in c#

Internally, these E-SQL queries are converted to SQL queries that are data store dependent. E-SQL queries are converted to datastore-specific query languages like T-SQL via the Entity Framework (Transact SQL). Entity Framework Core is the new and improved version of Entity Framework for .NET Core applications. In code, you might want to work with objects in an object oriented fashion.

Database First Approach

The fundamental purpose of the Object Context is to conduct various operations, such as adding and deleting instances of things and querying the database to save the modified state. Queries against the object model are written using the LINQ-to-Entities (L2E) query language. EF Core supports two development approaches 1) Code-First 2) Database-First. EF Core mainly targets the code-first approach and provides little support for the database-first approach because the visual designer or wizard for DB model is not supported as of EF Core. Entity Framework Core is a lightweight, extensible and cross-platform version of Microsoft’s object-relational mapper (ORM), Entity Framework is the official data access platform for Microsoft. An ORM framework does this object to SQL mapping by generating SQL statements and the Entity manager will execute them when you need to save or load objects from the database.

what is entity framework in c#

It is an entity class that does not depend on any framework-specific base class. It is the normal .NET CLR class that’s why it is named “Plain Old CLR Objects”. It supports many operations like update, create, and delete that are generated by the entity data model. It is the most crucial class when it comes to working with EF 6 or EF Core.

EF 6 DB-First

There are other ORMs in the marketplace, such as NHibernate and LLBL Gen Pro. Most ORMs typically map the type of the domain directly to the schema of the database. This tutorial on ‘ASP.NET Entity Framework’ covers its features and architecture. Apart from what ASP.NET Entity framework is, it also includes why to use it and its version history. Proceeding further, you will see the comparison between EF6 and EF Core. When an entity has the property of another type of entity property, it is called reference navigation property.

what is entity framework in c#

Prior to .NET 3.5, we (developers) often used to write ADO.NET code or Enterprise Data Access Block to save or retrieve application data from the underlying database. We used to open a connection to the database, create a DataSet to fetch or submit the data to the database, convert data from the DataSet to .NET objects or vice-versa to apply business rules. Microsoft has provided a framework called “Entity Framework” to automate all these database related activities for your application. This is the TechnetModelloCF class, the class with the name, that we assigned to the model and is going to inherit their type and functionality from DbContext class of EF. The task of this class is primarily to make available the database entities, but also to establish generation of particular parameters of the database, as well as to explain, if required, the relationships between the various objects. In other words, the items class already contains the property Families, derived from the database.

What is Code-First?

In the model, we have determined that the two entities Articles and Families were linked together. In fact, we have not defined Foreign Keys that could have instructed EF how to tie the two tables, which are independent. In this entity framework meaning condition, we will have to resort to more elaborate LINQ instructions, which implement the joins, that are missing at the model level. In our case, we select the two tables created, leaving the rest of the settings as proposed.

what is entity framework in c#

There are many articles on Entity Framework and very small information on DbContext at a single place. In this article I am trying to explain all aspect of DbContext and why it is most important class in Entity Framework. By browsing in the classes the wizard has created for us, we note two of particular interest, namely hierarchically – are daughters of TechnetModello.tt files-  Articoli.cs and Famiglie.cs. In it, we will package the entity framework and it will simply add to our solution, using the “Install” button.

Following the Database-First paradigm, we have already mentioned how the database will provide the framework modeling classes and not vice versa. If we had taken account of this constraint in the design phase, by inserting the Foreign Keys where appropriate, EF would notice it and would be going to create this kind of report automatically. Then we perform a variation on the database structure to see how this affects things in modeling classes. In this article, we will see how to use Entity Framework in a C# application. Entity Framework (EF) is an object-relational mapper for .NET developers that allows them to work with relational data using domain-specific objects.

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