ADO.NET EF 4 vs. DataSets (of any kind)

Question

Hello,

I've been reading updates on Data Sets vs. Other ORM's like ADO.NET Entity Framework, but a lot of them refer to the older version, so with EF 4 as an option today, what is people's opinion for data sets vs. EF 4, which is better, worse?

I like EF 4 because:

• The designer finally works well.
• The variation of model options (POCO, merge/split tables, future code-only approach, etc.).
• MS keeps coming out with updates to the framework.
• Capabilities to access model metadata/state tracking.

What is your opinion?

Thanks.

Answer 1

EF over Datasets any day, every day.

1. It's easy to generate.
2. The data models are auto-generated for you.

Answer 2

I agree that I would pick EF4 over Datasets.

I like that they added the LazyLoading (DeferredLoadingEnabled) in EF4. I use the feature in Linq to SQL and would have went with the first EF if it was there. But it is available now.

Using EF, things like RIA Services work really well for getting data into a Silverlight app. I had to do more proxying of data manually before with datasets.