Entity Framework Extensions How to read entities contained from an existing list with Entity Framework?

Description

The BulkRead method lets you filter a LINQ query by including all items from an existing list and then return the result immediately (ToList).

Example

var customers = context.Customers.BulkRead(deserializedCustomers);

Scenario

Reading entities using an existing list is a common scenario.

For example, you deserialize a JSON file into a list of Customer with the CustomerID and a few other properties populated. Then you want to retrieve those customers from the database to update those properties.

A frequent solution is using the LINQ Contains method to retrieves those customers such as:

var customerIDs = deserializedCustomers.Select(x => x.CustomerID).ToList();
var customers = context.Customers.Where(x => customerIDs.Contains(x.CustomerID)).ToList();

This solution works great most of the time. However, in some scenarios, you will hit one of the Contains method limitations, as explained here.

The BulkRead method has many advantages:

  • Allow using any list type (basic type, entity type, anonymous type, expando object)
  • Allow using an unlimited amount of items
  • Allow specifying a custom join with one or many properties

FAQ

How to use the method BulkRead?

The most basic scenario is passing a list to the BulkRead method.

The BulkRead method will retrieve entities from the database contained in the list.

// The `JOIN` statement will use the default entity key if none is provided (CustomerID)
var customers = context.Customers.BulkRead(deserializedCustomers);

// You can specify a custom `JOIN` clause with one or many properties using a `Lambda Expression`
var customers = context.Customers.BulkRead(deserializedCustomers, x => x.Code);

// You can specify a custom `JOIN` clause with one or many properties using a `List<string>`
var customers = context.Customers.BulkRead(deserializedCustomers, new List<string> {"Code"});

// You can specify a custom `JOIN` clause with one or many properties using a `params string[]`
var customers = context.Customers.BulkRead(deserializedCustomers, "Code");

Try it

The BulkReadAsync method is also supported.

What is the difference between the method BulkRead and WhereBulkContains?

Both methods are part of EF Extensions and are the same minus one difference. The BulkRead is an immediate method (return a List<T>) while the WhereBulkContains is a deferred method (return an IQueryable<T>).

Under the hood, the BulkRead method calls the WhereBulkContains method followed by the ToList or ToListAsync method.

// Using the BulkRead method is exactly like doing the following code:
var customers = context.Customers.WhereBulkContains(deserializedCustomers).ToList();

Where can I learn more about the method BulkRead?

You can learn more by reading the WhereBulkContains documentation.

Both methods have the same features and limitations.

You can also find additional information on our YouTube video.

Last updated: 2023-03-01
Author:


Contents