Optional columns in Entity Framework

Question

Hi,

Recently I started porting ADO.net app to Entity Framework. There are some optional columns in my table. With the ADO.net, I just check for existence of the column and get the value if it is there.

if (MyTable.Columns.Contains("PerformPreCheck") &&
    DBNull.Value != MyRow[MyTable.Columns["PerformPreCheck"]])
{
         m_bPerformPreCheck = (bool)MyRow[MyTable.Columns["PerformPreCheck"]];
}

How can I achieve the same thing with Entity Framework?

Thank you, Suresh

Answer 1

Presuming your entity is called Foo and the nullable column is called PerformPreCheck:

using(var context = new MyEntities())
{
    var f = context.Foos.First(); // or context.Foos.Where(foo => foo.Id == someId).First(), etc....
    m_bPerformPreCheck = f.PerformPreCheck.GetValueOrDefault();
}