CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#linqentity-frameworkentity-framework-5
Shaul Behr
Shaul Behr

Reputation: 38083

Representing a tinyint field as an enum in Entity Framework

I've been using Linq2Sql for the last few years and got used to a few features, like having an int or tinyint field in the DB, that I redefine in the DBML file to be of enum type, so it's nice and convenient to run a SQL query directly comparing to the enum (see here for my question 3 years ago on the subject, and the answer there).

Now I'm starting a project using Entity Framework 5, and while EF seems to have gotten many things right that L2S didn't (e.g. detach/reattach), I'm dismayed to see that there doesn't seem to be any easy way to change the C# type of such a field to be an enum.

Has anyone found a way to do this cleanly, so that I could have a query like:

var q = entities.Things.Where(t => t.Status == TStatus.Closed);

(and no, I don't want to have to cast to int or byte inline).

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2089

Answers (1)

Joey Gennari
Joey Gennari

Reputation: 2361

Code First

EF5 Code First supports enum properties on .NET 4.5. The following entity will create a int field in the database:

public class Event
{
    public int EventId { get; set; }
    public Status Status { get; set; }
}

public enum Status
{
    Open,
    Closed,
    Pending
}

To which you could query:

db.Events.Where(e => e.Status == Status.Pending)

Database First

As explained in this post, here's how you accomplish the same thing for Database First.

Go to the model browser and create a new enum type, then go to whatever column you wish to use it on and change its type to the enum that you just created.

Upvotes: 5

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