So, remember that Add is just the first step, and SaveChangesAsync() is what performs the final database insertion action. Another important EF Core extension method that requires explanation is AsNoTracking(). This method is used to inform the framework not to track entities retrieved from the database.

In the Code-First Approach, the EF Core creates the database and tables using Code-First Migration based on the default conventions and configuration. You can also change the default conventions used to create the database and its related tables. This approach is useful in Domain-Driven Design (DDD), i.e., creating the database tables based on the Domain classes. The tools package allows us to execute commands that help us structure our solution and alter our database.

Lazy Loading

If you’re considering working with a database engine, I highly recommend looking at EF Core as an option to jumpstart your development. As we can see, EF Core passes our value of 1 to the database as a parameter. Any constant we define in C# will be added as either a parameter or hardcoded into the SQL Query. LINQ provides what is entity framework multiple approaches to pick the top record from a query, with methods like Take, First, and FirstOrDefault. In this example, let’s find the Series with the fewest number of episodes. We’ve done a lot of work up to this point to get to the reason developers choose an ORM in the first place, writing queries.

For your convenience, we have compiled a table with brief information about them. Concurrency conflicts in EF Core occur when multiple users or processes attempt to modify the same entity simultaneously. EF Core provides mechanisms to handle these conflicts, such as optimistic concurrency control using timestamps or row version columns. As mentioned in the previous section, aggregations are essential for providing summary data. In this example, we’ll look at the sources of ratings and how many exist in our database.

Build from source

EF Core provides extensibility points and hooks for customizing its behavior and integrating with third-party libraries and frameworks. Developers can define custom conventions, configure entity mappings, intercept database operations, and extend EF Core functionality through custom implementations of interfaces and extension methods. EF Core seamlessly integrates with Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a powerful query language provided by .NET languages like C#. LINQ allows developers to write expressive and type-safe queries against entity classes using familiar syntax, enabling rich query capabilities and compile-time validation of query expressions. Then, based on the application domain classes and DBContext class, the EF Core creates the database and related tables. For a better understanding, please have a look at the following diagram.

• Some people prefer to write all queries (Dapper) and some people prefer to work with LINQ (EF Core).
• In the next section, we’ll see that it’s possible to do aggregates on a single table without traversing the production relationship.
• As we can see, EF Core passes our value of 1 to the database as a parameter.
• EF Core includes providers as NuGet packages which you need to install.
• If we now make a call to the endpoint GetAllTodoWithItems we will see that the entity and its respective items have been deleted from our database.

We’ll also want to define our database connection string for demo purposes. Additionally, we will want to install the dotnet-ef command-line tool (CLI). From within the newly created project directory type the following commands into Rider’s integrated terminal.

What is Entity Framework Core?

It is open-source, lightweight, extensible and a cross-platform version of Entity Framework data access technology. You need to understand the underlying database to design, debug and maintain production app performance at the highest possible level. The strongly-typed approach to the data suggests using definite classes in an object-oriented way. DbContext is a core component of EF Core, representing the database session and acting as a bridge between the application and the database. It manages database connections, tracks changes to entities, and provides methods for querying and saving data.

Instead, it adds the entity to the ChangeTracker of the database context, setting it to an Add state. The actual insertion into the database will occur only when we call the SaveChangesAsync() method. This operation is crucial for confirming and making the changes permanent in the database.

Seeding initial data

I am running into a very confusing issue with querying data in EF Core, and hoping that I can find the answer here. In the next article, I will discuss How to Install the Entity Framework Core in ASP.NET Core Application using Visual Studio. Here, I briefly introduced Entity Framework Core in this article, and I hope you enjoy this Introduction to Entity Framework Core article. These commands need to be executed from a command line terminal, like the one found in Rider.

Typically, our classes will map one to one with our database tables, and relationships between tables are defined using navigational conventions. Using these two simple commands, all the entities of our tables with their corresponding relationships will be created, and additionally, the DbContext class will be generated. If you have an existing database and database tables are already there, you must use the EF Core Database First Approach. In the database-first approach, the EF Core creates the DBContext and Domain Classes based on the existing database schema using EF Core Command.

Entity Framework Core 8

This will increase the overall amount of time required to complete an application. Do the detailed examination and testing of the generated migrations. Database schema and column types cannot be easily changed if the database already contains data. In this post, we modeled an entertainment problem domain using code-first design.

EF Core is designed to be cross-platform and can be used in .NET applications targeting different platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. It supports a wide range of database providers and can be used with various database engines, making it suitable for developing applications across different environments and deployment scenarios. To get started using EF Core 5, we need to define a class that derives from DbContext and contains our models.

EF Core Overview Discover What is EF Core and Why You Should Use it

The Entity Framework Core is an updated and enhanced version of the Entity Framework designed for .NET Core applications. While the EF Core is relatively new and not as fully developed as the EF 6, it still supports its predecessor’s features and concepts. However, not all EF6 features are currently implemented in EF Core. Entity Framework Core has trade-offs of performance overhead and increased memory usage compared to more tedious approaches like ADO.NET. Most developers are willing to make those trade-offs for increased developer productivity, a high-level database access abstraction, and unit testing options.