Entity Framework 7 in memory database exception

Question

I hit a problem when using the in memory database for unit testing with EF 7. The following application will demonstrate the problem.

using System;
using Microsoft.Data.Entity;
using Microsoft.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;

namespace EF7InMemoryBug
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Program p = new Program();

            MembershipContext m1 = p.GetNewContext();
            MembershipContext m2 = p.GetNewContext();

            foreach (var member in m1.Members)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(member);
            }
        }

        private MembershipContext GetNewContext()
        {
            var optionsBuilder =
                new DbContextOptionsBuilder<MembershipContext>();
            optionsBuilder.UseInMemoryDatabase();

            MembershipContext context = new MembershipContext(optionsBuilder.Options);

            Member member1 = new Member()
            {
                MemberId = 1,
                FirstName = "James",
                LastName = "Jones"
            };

            context.Members.Add(member1);
            context.SaveChanges();
            return context;
        }

    }

    public class Member
    {
        public int MemberId { get; set; }
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return $"{MemberId} {FirstName} {LastName}";
        }
    }

    public class MembershipContext : DbContext
    {
        public MembershipContext(DbContextOptions options)
        : base(options) {}
        public DbSet<Member> Members { get; set; }
    }
}

After calling MembershipContext m2 = p.GetNewContext(); an exception is thrown on the context.SaveChanges().

An exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in EntityFramework.Core.dll but was not handled in user code

Additional information: An element with the same key but a different value already exists. Key: Microsoft.Data.Entity.ChangeTracking.Internal.SimpleKeyValue`1[System.Int32]

I know what is happening, but I don't know why.

When MembershipContext context = new MembershipContext(optionsBuilder.Options); is called the second time, the context is created, BUT the context.Members already has the entry from the first time I created the context, hence the exception.

Answer 1

It's not a bug, it's a feature. https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework.Docs/issues/95

Here is the suggested way using DI.

using System;
using Microsoft.Data.Entity;
using Microsoft.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

namespace EF7InMemoryBug
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Program p = new Program();
            MembershipContext m1 = p.GetNewContext();
            MembershipContext m2 = p.GetNewContext();

            foreach (var member in m1.Members)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(member);
            }

            foreach (var member in m2.Members)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(member);
            }
        }

        private MembershipContext GetNewContext()
        {
            var serviceCollection = new ServiceCollection();
            serviceCollection
                .AddEntityFramework()
                .AddInMemoryDatabase()
                .AddDbContext<MembershipContext>(c => c.UseInMemoryDatabase());

            MembershipContext context = serviceCollection.BuildServiceProvider().GetService<MembershipContext>();

            Member member1 = new Member()
            {
                MemberId = 1,
                FirstName = "James",
                LastName = "Jones"
            };

            context.Members.Add(member1);
            context.SaveChanges();
            return context;
        }

    }

    public class Member
    {
        public int MemberId { get; set; }
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return $"{MemberId} {FirstName} {LastName}";
        }
    }

    public class MembershipContext : DbContext
    {
        public MembershipContext(DbContextOptions options)
        : base(options) {}
        public DbSet<Member> Members { get; set; }
    }
}