Linq to Entities and Xml Fields - entity-framework

Question

I have this scenario:
A SQL Server table myTable with field1, xmlField (nvarchar(50) and xml sql server data type)
Linq to entities
Now I'd like to get a query like this:
SELECT Field1, XmlField
FROM MyTable
WHERE CAST(XmlField AS nvarchar(4000)) = '<myXml />'
Obviously this is a correct query in SQL Server but I can't find a solution to write this in L2E.
Please notify that this code doesn't work:
var query = from row in context.MyTables
where (string)row.XmlField == "<myXml />"
select row
and other cast methods too.
This just because in L2E the "ToString" does't work correctly.
Now my idea is this one: an extension method:
var query = from row in context.MyTables
select row
query = query.CompareXml("XmlField", "<myXml />")
and this is the extended method:
public static IQueryable<TSource> CompareXml<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, string xmlFieldName, string xmlToCompare)
{
ConstantExpression xmlValue = Expression.Constant(xmlToCompare);
ParameterExpression parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TSource), source.ElementType.Name);
PropertyInfo propertyInfo = typeof(TSource).GetProperty(xmlFieldName);
MemberExpression memberAccess = Expression.MakeMemberAccess(parameter, propertyInfo);
var stringMember = Expression.Convert(memberAccess, typeof(string));
BinaryExpression clauseExpression = Expression.Equal(xmlValue, stringMember);
return source.Where(Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>>(clauseExpression, parameter));
}
and again this doesn't work too.
Now I'd like to understand how I can force a "Convert" using Cast so I can compare Xml and nvarchar.
Thanks in advance
Massimiliano

Answer 1

Unfortunately EF still doesn't properly support XML columns. I'm afraid pretty much the only choice I know of is to create a view that does the cast and map that to a different entity. This will probably make the code awkward but also offers additional possible scenarios; for example, with a lot of SQL code, you could map elements in the XML columns to actual columns in the view, allowing you to make queries on specific parts of the XML.
On the bright side, at least inserting values in an XML column works pretty much as expected.