Entity Framework Extensions How EFE Bulk Extensions Handle Explicit Values in EF Core

Before diving into this topic, make sure you've read the article How Does EF Core Handle Explicit Values for Generated Properties?. We will build upon the concepts introduced there to explore how EFE Bulk Extensions manage explicit values in EF Core.

What is the Default Behavior for BulkSaveChanges?

We have discussed the default behavior of SaveChanges in this section of our related article: How EF Core Handles Generated Values for SaveChanges.

The BulkSaveChanges method has almost identical behavior to SaveChanges, with one significant difference:

Unlike SaveChanges, which has a Save state, BulkSaveChanges uses the Ignore state for identity columns on both insert and update.

It is still possible to insert explicit identity values using the InsertKeepIdentity option:

context.BulkSaveChanges(options => { options.InsertKeepIdentity = true; });

However, updating identity values is not supported, and generally, such a scenario doesn’t make practical sense.

For a complete comparison, see this Online Example.

What is the Default Behavior for Other Bulk Extension Methods?

The default behavior for other bulk extension methods such as BulkInsert, BulkInsertOptimized, BulkUpdate, BulkMerge, and BulkSynchronize is slightly more complex.

Here are the three differences in default behavior for our bulk extensions compared to SaveChanges, as demonstrated in this Online Example:

While the behavior for Identity mirrors what we observed in the BulkSaveChanges method, new behaviors for Default Value and ValueGeneratedOnAdd have been introduced.

To increase flexibility, starting from version 8.103.09.0, we added the ExplicitValueResolutionMode options. You can modify the default behavior by selecting one of these six states:

• Ignore: The default value (Online Example)
• AlwaysKeepValueOnInsert: Properties with generated values always retain the entity values on insert, even if no explicit value is specified (Online Example)
• AlwaysKeepValueOnUpdate: Properties with generated values always retain the entity values on update, even if the value is the same as the original one (Online Example)
• AlwaysKeepValueOnInsertOrUpdate: Combines the behaviors of AlwaysKeepValueOnInsert and AlwaysKeepValueOnUpdate (Online Example)
• SmartDefaultValueOnBulkInsert: This state allows BulkInsert to logically split an insert into multiple statements to behave like SaveChanges with default values (Online Example)
• SmartPartialResolutionOnBulkInsert: Similar to SmartDefaultValueOnBulkInsert but doesn't insert for the ValueGeneratedOnAddOrUpdate (Online Example)

For the AlwaysKeepValueOnInsert, AlwaysKeepValueOnUpdate, and AlwaysKeepValueOnInsertOrUpdate states, they force all our bulk extensions to always takes values from the entity regardless of whether an explicit value is specified.

For the SmartDefaultValueOnBulkInsert and SmartPartialResolutionOnBulkInsert states, applicable only to BulkInsert and BulkInsertOptimized, these states enable our library to split a single insert into multiple insert statements. For example, if you have two entities, one with an explicit value and another without, and call the BulkInsert method, two insert statements will be created:

• One BulkInsert statement for entities without explicit values.
• Another BulkInsert statement for entities with explicit values.

Thus, if you have three properties that allow default values, a BulkInsert could create up to eight insert statements to cover all possible scenarios.

Conclusion

In this article, we have observed that the BulkSaveChanges method behaves similarly to SaveChanges, except for the handling of the identity property.

We also discovered that other Bulk Extensions methods have very similar behaviors, except for properties configured as Identity, Default Value, and ValueGeneratedOnAdd.

Moreover, we explored how you can modify the default behavior of these extensions by specifying the ExplicitValueResolutionMode state.

One of the most crucial insights from this article is the introduction of the SmartDefaultValueOnBulkInsert and SmartPartialResolutionOnBulkInsert states. These options now allow BulkInsert operations to be split into multiple distinct insert statements, ensuring that explicit values are inserted correctly when specified.