EF Code First Multiple Tables to single entity - entity-framework

Question

I'm just starting out with Entity Framework and I seem to be misunderstanding something. Basically I've got a database already setup. Let's say the following are my tables.
**Employees**
EmployeeId
CubeId (FK to Cubes table)
NameId (FK to Name table)
**Cubes**
CubeId
CubeName
**Person**
NameId
FirstName
LastName
I want to be able to write something like this: SELECT EmployeeId, CubeId, CubeName, FirstName, LastName FROM Employees LEFT OUTER JOIN Cubes LEFT OUTER JOIN Person. So it would return all of the Employees. Basically, in EF Code First do you have to create a class for EVERY table? If not, how do you create a LEFT OUTER Join equivalent? All of the examples I've found use navigational properties to go from table to table (i.e. class to class).

Answer 1

Models:
public class Employee
{
[Key]
public int EmployeeId {get;set;}
public int CubeId {get;set;}
[ForeignKey("Cube")]
public int NameId {get;set;}
[ForeignKey("Name")]
public virtual Cube Cube {get;set;}
public virtual Name Name {get;set;}
}
public class Cube
{
[Key]
public int CubeId {get;set;}
public string CubeName {get;set;}
}
public class Name
{
[Key]
public int NameId {get;set}
public string FirstName {get;set;}
public string LastName {get;set;}
}
Your context:
public class YourContext:DbContext
{
public DbSet<Name> Names {get;set;}
public DbSet<Cube> Cubes {get;set;}
public DbSet<Employee> Employees {get;set;}
}
Your query:
YourContext db = new YourContext();
var query = db.Employees.Where(x => x.EmployeeId == id).Select(x => new
{
EmployeeId = x.EmployeeId,
CubeId = x.Cube.CubeId,
CubeName = x.Cube.CubeName,
FirstName = x.Name.FirstName,
LastName = x.Name.LastName
}).FirstOrDefault();
This will locate first employee that has some id (or return null if there's none), and then create a type that has all the properties you mentioned. If you need last name, you access it with:
string lastName = query.LastName;