Raw SQL with Entity Framework - entity-framework

I am trying to write a simple raw query with Entity Framework to my database:
[ResponseType(typeof(Customer))]
[Route("name/{name}")]
[HttpGet]
public List<Customer> GetCustomerName(string name)
{
//var results = db.Customers.SqlQuery("SELECT Name from dbo.Customer").Where(p => p.Name.Equals(name)).ToList();
var results = db.Customers.SqlQuery("SELECT Name from dbo.Customer WHERE Name = #Name",new SqlParameter("#Name",name)).ToList();
//var results = db.Customers.Where(p => p.Name.Equals(name));
return results;
}
The last Entity Framework query works just fine, but I want to do raw SQL to get something back simple because I have never gotten raw SQL with Entity Framework to work and I see all of these examples where people says it works for them. The top 2 var results do not work I get this error any help would be greatly appreciated. I am a Web API 2 newbie and I am just trying to learn it
So the error says a member of the type AccrRevAcct does not have a corresponding column. I am not sure what that means AccrRevAcct is a column on my database but so is Name and I just want the Name of my customer.
http://localhost:61280/api/Customers/name/1st MIDAMERICA CREDIT UNION
This is the call I make to my server and like I said it returns fine with the 3rd statement but that isn't raw SQL like I want to achieve. I only want to do this because I have some developers saying they can't get everything to work in EF I personally like it and haven't ran into this problem I want to show them fine just drop to raw SQL, but I need to show them I can make it work first lol.

If you are using SqlQuery on the DbSet you have to return a full instance. If you want to reshape the data like you are doing you need to use the SqlQuery<T> on the db.Database instead.
Example from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj592907(v=vs.113).aspx
using (var context = new BloggingContext())
{
var blogNames = context.Database.SqlQuery<string>(
"SELECT Name FROM dbo.Blogs").ToList();
}

Honestly I think you are trying to solve the wrong problem. The last query is the one you should be using. If your developers can't get EF to work that is what needs to be fixed.

Related

Attempting to use EF/Linq to Entities for dynamic querying and CRUD operations

(as advised re-posting this question here... originally posted in msdn forum)
I am striving to write a "generic" routine for some simple CRUD operations using EF/Linq to Entities. I'm working in ASP.NET (C# or VB).
I have looked at:
Getting a reference to a dynamically selected table with "GetObjectByKey" (But I don't want anything from cache. I want data from database. Seems like not what this function is intended for).
CRM Dynamic Entities (here you can pass a tablename string to query) looked like the approach I am looking for but I don't get the idea that this CRM effort is necessarily staying current (?) and/or has much assurance for the future??
I looked at various ways of drilling thru Namespaces/Objects to get to where I could pass a TableName parameter into the oft used query syntax var query = (from c in context.C_Contacts select c); (for example) where somehow I could swap out the "C_Contacts" TEntity depending on which table I want to work with. But not finding a way to do this ??
Slightly over-simplyfing, I just want to be able to pass a tablename parameter and in some cases some associated fieldnames and values (perhaps in a generic object?) to my routine and then let that routine dynamically plug into LINQ to Entity data context/model and do some standard "select all" operations for parameter table or do a delete to parameter table based on a generic record id. I'm trying to avoid calling the various different automatically generated L2E methods based on tablename etc...instead just trying to drill into the data context and ultimately the L2E query syntax for dynamically passed table/field names.
Has anyone found any successful/efficient approaches for doing this? Any ideas, links, examples?
The DbContext object has a generic Set() method. This will give you
from c in context.Set<Contact>() select c
Here's method when starting from a string:
public void Test()
{
dynamic entity = null;
Type type = Type.GetType("Contract");
entity = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
ProcessType(entity);
}
public void ProcessType<TEntity>(TEntity instance)
where TEntity : class
{
var result =
from item in this.Set<TEntity>()
select item;
//do stuff with the result
//passing back to the caller can get more complicated
//but passing it on will be fine ...
}

Entity Framework 5 SaveChanges Not Working, No Error

None of the many questions on this topic seem to match my situation. I have a large data model. In certain cases, only a few of the fields need be displayed on the UI, so for those I replaced the LINQ to Entity query that pulls in everything with an Entity SQL query retrieving only the columns needed, using a Type constructor so that I got an entity returned and not a DbDataRecord, like this:
SELECT VALUE MyModelNameSpace.INCIDENT(incident.FieldA, incident.FieldB, ...) FROM ... AS ...
This works and displays the fields in the UI. And if I make a change, the change makes it back to the entity model when I tab out of the UI element. But when I do a SaveChanges, the changes do not get persisted to the database. No errors show up in the Log. Now if I very carefully replace the above query with an Entity Sql query that retrieves the entire entity, like this:
SELECT VALUE incident FROM MyDB.INCIDENTs AS incident...
Changes do get persisted in the database! So as a test, I created another query like the first that named every column in the entity, which should be the exact equivalent of the second Entity SQL query. Yet it did not persist changes to the database either.
I've tried setting the MergeOption on the returned result to PreserveChanges, to start tracking, like this:
incidents.MergeOption = MergeOption.PreserveChanges;
But that has no effect. But really, if retrieving the entire entity with Entity Sql persists changes, what logical purpose would there be for behaving differently when a subset of the fields are retrieved? I'm wondering if this is a bug?
Gert was correct, the problem was that the entity was not attached. Dank U wel, Gert! Ik was ervan verbluft!
I just wanted to add a little detail to show the full solution. Basically, the ObjectContext has an Attach method, so you'd think that would be it. However, when your Entity SQL select statement names columns, and you create the object using a Type as I did, the EntityKey is not created, and ObjectContext.Attach fails. After trying and failing to insert the EntityKey I created myself, I stumbled across ObjectSet.Attach, added in Entity Framework 4. Instead of failing, it creates the EntityKey if it is missing. Nice touch.
The code was (this can probably be done in fewer steps, but I know this works):
var QueryString = "SELECT VALUE RunTimeUIDesigner.INCIDENT (incident.INCIDENT_NBR,incident.LOCATION,etc"
ObjectQuery<INCIDENT> incidents = orbcadDB.CreateQuery<INCIDENT>(QueryString);
incidents.MergeOption = MergeOption.PreserveChanges;
List<INCIDENT> retrievedIncidents = incidents.ToList<INCIDENT>();
orbcadDB.INCIDENTs.Attach(retrievedIncidents[0]);
iNCIDENTsViewSource.Source = retrievedIncidents;

EF 4.1 Code First Raw SQL

I would like to return entities using RAW SQL, so I have the following code which returns a set of Entities:
var rawSql = "exec spFindStories #pattern, #page, #pageSize";
// use raw SQL because SP is needed
// results are not tracked.
var stories = context.Database.SqlQuery<Story>(rawSql,
new SqlParameter("#pattern", pattern),
new SqlParameter("#page", page),
new SqlParameter("#pageSize", pageSize)
).ToList();
Now for each one of these stories, I need to load their related Tags. It seems that CF does not load related entities returned in the results. How can I achieve this ??
Thanks!!
Why not add it as a function import and specify what it's returning as the entity you expect?

Trying to traverse tables from sql database using entity framework targeting .net 3.5 websites

I'm simply trying to get data from two sql server db tables using ado.net entity framework. My code is:
using (Model.Entities e = new Model.Entities())
{
return e.PAGE.First().CONTROL;
}
The database is setup to have two tables, a control table which links to a page table via an 'id' field in the tables (control_id). There is one CONTROL object for each PAGE object.
I keep getting a null value for my return value and I know that's not right.
I can use vis studio and breakpoints to see that there is a PAGE object in 'e' and I can see that there are multiple CONTROL objects in 'e'. This isn't a large database, I just have some sample data in there to ensure that I get this working - so I know that there should be a CONTROL object connected to this PAGE (i've verified this through sql server).
I am very familiar with the general code syntax, I've been using LINQ for a couple of years; however, I have not done much work at all with the entity framework or ado.net 4.
It seems like if I just pull individual table data then it works fine (i.e. e.PAGE.First() .. or .. e.CONTROL.Where(x=>x.someValue.Equals('someValue') ) but if I try to pull by traversing through the tables then I get nothing back (NULL).
Hope that all makes sense.
Some questions for you:
I assume is a 1..1 between PAGE and CONTROL,
Is there a FK called "ControlID" on PAGE?
Do you have a navigational property called "Control" on your "Page" entity in your EDMX?
If the answer to all of the above is Yes, then this should work:
var page = e.Pages.Include("Control").First();
Here, you are returning the First "Page" record, and eager loading the associated control.
The SQL produced should be something like this:
SELECT p.*, c.*
FROM Page p
INNER JOIN Control c
on p.ControlId = c.ControlId

MVC 1.0 + EF: Does db.EntitySet.where(something) still return all rows in table?

In a repository, I do this:
public AgenciesDonor FindPrimary(Guid donorId) {
return db.AgenciesDonorSet.Include("DonorPanels").Include("PriceAdjustments").Include("Donors").First(x => x.Donors.DonorId == donorId && x.IsPrimary);
}
then down in another method in the same repository, this:
AgenciesDonor oldPrimary = this.FindPrimary(donorId);
In the debugger, the resultsview shows all records in that table, but:
oldPrimary.Count();
is 1 (which it should be).
Why am I seeing all table entries retrieved, and not just 1? I thought row filtering was done in the DB.
If db.EntitySet really does fetch everything to the client, what's the right way to keep the client data-lite using EF? Fetching all rows won't scale for what I'm doing.
You will see everything if you hover over the AgenciesDonorSet because LINQ to Entities (or SQL) uses delayed execution. When the query is actually executed, it is just retrieving the count.
If you want to view the SQL being generated for any query, you can add this bit of code:
var query = queryObj as ObjectQuery; //assign your query to queryObj rather than returning it immediately
if (query != null)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(context);
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(query.ToTraceString());
}
Entity Set does not implement IQueryable, so the extension methods that you're using are IEnumerable extension methods. See here:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/linqprojectgeneral/thread/121ec4e8-ce40-49e0-b715-75a5bd0063dc/
I agree that this is stupid, and I'm surprised that more people haven't complained about it. The official reason:
The design reason for not making
EntitySet IQueryable is because
there's not a clean way to reconcile
Add\Remove on EntitySet with
IQueryable's filtering and
transformation ability.