Core Introduction - (Entity Framework Core)

Entity Framework Core is a popular Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework for .NET Core applications. It allows you to work with data in the form of objects and queries, rather than writing raw SQL queries. In this tutorial, we'll take a closer look at Entity Framework Core, its syntax, use cases, and important considerations.

Syntax

Here is an example of Entity Framework Core syntax for creating a new entity model:

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

We can then use Entity Framework Core to create a database table based on this entity model:

public class CustomerContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<Customer> Customers { get; set; }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);

        modelBuilder.Entity<Customer>().ToTable("Customers");
    }
}

In this example, we've created a new class, CustomerContext, which is derived from DbContext. We've also created a new DbSet of type Customer to represent the database table that will be created. We then override the OnModelCreating method and use the ModelBuilder to define the table name.

Example

Let's look at an example of using Entity Framework Core to retrieve data from a database. Suppose we have a Customer entity with properties Id, FirstName, and LastName. We can use Entity Framework Core to retrieve all customers from the database as follows:

using (var context = new CustomerContext())
{
    var customers = context.Customers.ToList();
}

In this example, we're creating a new instance of CustomerContext, which is our DbContext class. We then retrieve all customers from the database using context.Customers.ToList().

Explanation

Entity Framework Core is an ORM framework that maps objects and queries to database tables and SQL queries, respectively. It allows developers to work with entities and perform common database operations without writing raw SQL queries. The DbContext class represents the database context, which is responsible for managing entities and database operations.

Use

Entity Framework Core is useful when you want to work with data in the form of objects, rather than writing raw SQL queries. It's a good fit for applications that need to work with a database, but don't want to deal with the complexity of writing SQL queries.

Important Points

Here are some important points to keep in mind when using Entity Framework Core:

• Entity Framework Core is a powerful ORM framework that can reduce the complexity of working with databases.
• Entity Framework Core is designed to work well with .NET Core applications.
• Entity Framework Core supports a variety of database providers, including SQL Server, SQLite, and PostgreSQL.

Summary

In this tutorial, we discussed Entity Framework Core, an ORM framework for .NET Core applications. We covered syntax, examples, explanation, use, and important points of Entity Framework Core. With this knowledge, you can consider using Entity Framework Core in your own .NET Core applications to simplify database operations and improve application performance.