Tag: sql-server

Use FromSql on a DbSet when the procedure returns full entity rows, Database.SqlQuery<T> when it returns a projection, and ExecuteSql when it returns nothing. Never chain a LINQ operator onto an EXEC, and never read an output parameter before the reader is disposed.

EF Core scaffolds RenameTable when you change the table name, but DropTable plus CreateTable when you rename the entity class. Here is how to tell the two apart, the ToTable trick that makes a class rename free, and the column-rename bug that silently swaps your data.

Add a rowversion concurrency token in EF Core 11: the [Timestamp] and IsRowVersion setup, the SQL EF actually emits, catching DbUpdateConcurrencyException, store-wins vs client-wins vs merge, disconnected APIs with ETags, and the five traps that silently disable the whole thing.

Map a nested type to a single JSON column with ComplexProperty(...).ToJson(), let EF Core 11 store it in the native SQL Server 2025 json type, then query into it with LINQ that translates to JSON_VALUE, JSON_CONTAINS, and JSON_PATH_EXISTS.

When you Include two sibling collections, EF Core 11 returns the cross product and your row count explodes. Here is how AsSplitQuery fixes it, how to turn it on globally, and the consistency and ordering gotchas to watch for.

EF Core 11 Preview 4 drops the long-standing shadow-property restriction on SQL Server temporal tables. PeriodStart and PeriodEnd can now be regular CLR properties, configured with strongly-typed HasPeriodStart and HasPeriodEnd lambdas.

Migrations use the design-time DbContext, not your runtime CommandTimeout. Set the timeout via UseSqlServer(o => o.CommandTimeout(...)), the connection string Command Timeout, or Database.SetCommandTimeout before Migrate().

A complete guide to running ASP.NET Core integration tests against a real SQL Server 2022 using Testcontainers 4.11 and EF Core 11: WebApplicationFactory wiring, IAsyncLifetime, swapping the DbContext registration, applying migrations, parallelism, Ryuk cleanup, and CI gotchas.

EF Core 11 auto-translates LINQ Contains over JSON collections to the new SQL Server 2025 JSON_CONTAINS function, and adds EF.Functions.JsonContains for path-scoped and mode-specific queries that can hit a JSON index.

EF Core 11 Preview 3 removes redundant to-one joins from split queries and drops unneeded ORDER BY keys. One reported scenario got 29% faster, another 22%. Here is what the SQL now looks like.