Reduce massive includes in EF - entity-framework

Question

Any ways to shorten this include statement?
var query = Context.Businesses
.Include(b => b.Categories)
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.Address))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.BranchType))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.CustomFields))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.Phones))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.OpeningTimes.Select(ot => ot.WorkingPeriods)));
I thought about using a SPROC but I'm unsure how it will know what was returned.
So is there a non hard-coded way to do this shorter than it is? Perhaps an external lambda that treats all the properties of Branch?

Answer 1

You could do something similar to the answer to this question. So in your case, make an extension method like this:
public static class DataContextExtensions
{
public static IQueryable<Business> BusinessesComplete(this DataContext context){
return context.Businesses
.Include(b => b.Categories)
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.Address))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.BranchType))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.CustomFields))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.Phones))
.Include(b => b.Branches.Select(br => br.OpeningTimes.Select(ot => ot.WorkingPeriods)));
}
}
Then use it like this:
Business business = context.BusinessesComplete().Where(b => ...etc);