Microsoft has provided a framework called “Entity Framework” to automate all these database related activities for your application. It uses the model to create the database and build the tables and columns of the tables. It Manages the database, Manages database connections, creates & initializes the database. It queries for data and converts them models by using the process called materialization. It keeps track of the added, modified & deleted entities in the memory and updates the database when asked for.

what is entity framework in c#

It creates the model and codes from the database in the project and connects them with the database and developer. We’ll indicate whether our SP’s result set has a key value by configuring our model in an OnModelCreatingPartial method in our EFCoreSPContext definition. The querying is done by the find method, which takes the Primary key(s) as the argument and retrieves the matching row from the database and populates the entity. In the absence of any Connection String provided in the app.config file, the EF creates the database either in localdb or SQL Express depending on the system. The command compiles the application and connects to the database using the connection string specified in the local development environment configuration. The other columns are not updated because the change tracker knows these columns have not changed.

Step 3: Specify the Key of the Model

Take the defaults and you will end up with some of the files you need already there. In Visual Studio Community (I am using the most recent version), go to Create New Project and choose ASP.NET Core Web API. You don’t have to be creating an API to use EF, you can also use it in a console project or whatever you want). Both ADO.NET and Entity Frameworks have similar and quite different features. To make the process of comparison easier and to answer numerous questions about them (e.g. “does Entity Framework use ADO.NET?” etc.), we offer a clear comparison table.

what is entity framework in c#

The EF uses a series of steps to discover and initialize the database. It supports LINQ queries, change tracking, updates, and schema migrations. EF Core works with SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, SQLite, Azure Cosmos DB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other databases through a provider plugin API. This section demonstrates how to retrieve output parameters from stored procedures
within Entity Framework. Output parameters can be retrieved from a function
import mapped to a stored procedure.

How does it know what table to go to?

Work still needs to be done to retrieve and map the data from the database to an instance of the domain object. However, as the domain model grows, the amount of code required can grow and will need more and more development time to maintain. This will increase the overall amount of time required to complete an application. 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.

  • It keeps track of the added, modified & deleted entities in the memory and updates the database when asked for.
  • These are enabled by default when using SQL Server variant database engines, but we can configure resiliency for our specific needs.
  • Sometimes we can fix these issues through infrastructure management or by optimizing queries to be less taxing on our database.
  • The stored
    procedure will modify the database data and return the results with an implicit resultset.
  • This class is derived from the system.data.entity.dbcontext namespace.

One of the key features of EF Core is its support for strong typing. An ORM (Object-Relational Mapper) is used to interact with a database using an object-oriented programming language. ORMs allow developers to work with databases using familiar, object-oriented concepts, rather than writing raw SQL statements. The version 4.3.1 was released on February 29, 2012.[10] There were a few updates, like support for migration. This tutorial is designed for those who want to learn how to start the development of the Entity Framework in their application. This tutorial is designed for those who want to learn how to start the development of Entity Framework in their application.

Customizing Entity Framework Core Migration Paths for Streamlined Development

While it reduces the cost of processing entities for object tracking, it can add to memory overhead. The mismatch between the assumed behavior of the engine and actual behavior can lead us to introduce bugs. The best option is to run our tests against a production-like environment, as we’ll eliminate issues that could arise from engine variations.

A very simple SQL Server database in which a list of all resorts is stored in the Resorts table (Table 1). Founded in 1997, Devart is currently one of the leading developers of database management software, ALM solutions and data providers for most popular database servers. EF Core has built-in what is entity framework connection resiliency mechanisms that support retry and cool-down strategies. These are enabled by default when using SQL Server variant database engines, but we can configure resiliency for our specific needs. String interpolation is one of the best C# features of the last decade.

what is entity framework in c#