Ef core store enum as string example. For example, enum to string conversions are used as an example above, but EF Core will actually do this automatically when the provider type is configured as string using the generic type of xref:Microsoft. Full source code here. I started by looking at some of the considerations you should make If we decide to store enum names as strings, every character would take some bytes depending upon encoding used by database to store the data. 1 HasConversion on all properties of type datetime. A enum always has a value as a number. e. Enumarable and System. The Npgsql EF provider is built on top of the lower-level From my own practice, I store enum values as int in the database. Enum support in EF Core is quite extensive, in this article I’ll cover how to use an enum as a Primary Key, as well as storing the integer and string value of the enum in a column. I can do this manually like this: protected override void OnModelCreating Transition EF Core 3. MongoDB may complicate things depending on that provider implementation (no idea why anyone wants to use an ORM over a NoSQL document store) but the config that did work for me was Properties<Enum>(). 1 to Entity Framework Core 6. MyEnum. If you're using SQL Server or something else without enum support, I usually make an enums schema and make a table for each enum that has two columns. Enum Type Mapping. That maps to a separate list of ints for each MyObject. You don't need using convertors, EF Core stores Enums as an Integer. It worked, as supposed to but the field in the created table that refers to the enumerator is a simple int. 1, value conversions can be applied to transform the values obtained from columns before they are applied to properties, and vice versa. If you're using SQL Server or something else without enum support, I usually make an enums schema and make a table EF Core also provides built-in value converters for common scenarios, such as converting enums to strings or integers. It needs to be a concrete type like IList<Address>. C# Entity Framework Core store enum using native enum datatype. It is a nicer solution than the one presented here. SByte, Edm. I want to make a query to filter the data by a substring of the gender. This option, unique to PostgreSQL, provides the best of both Enum constants can only be of ordinal types (int by default), so you can't have string constants in enums. Part of issues #242 and #1381 Instead of using special code for materialization and parameter creation, type mappings now add an appropriate type converter for enum types that converts two and from the underlying numeric value. MatchFailures of course is simple. WFStateCode == (char)ClassX. If I were to use this using Entity Framework (code first) then the int values will be stored in the database. ToString() to using string value. So instead of defining In this example, I cast the enum to an string to store in the database, and when retrieving from the database I cast the stored string to an DeliveryPreference enum. Value = mytable. If so, this would be a case of the design-time DbContext not knowing about the enum mapping (check out this page in the docs). 4. (Note the Properties is non-nullable <Enum> Currently (EF Core 3. ) This means that if the The second approach would be to write a type converter and register it within EF core. UserRole stays as an enum type in our C# codebase while in the database it gets saved as corresponding string values. Load 7 more related questions Show fewer related questions Sorted by: Reset to default Know someone who can answer? I have a few columns that contain JSON data. 0 Unable to define table relationship to be used with Add-Migration Before EF Core 8, there were two options: In this sample, we have a Car class with a Color enum, and the Car class has a Colors property. Value converters allow property values to be converted when reading from or writing to the database. The enum comes with the penalty that a schema change is How do you approach enums in your EF entities? For example let's say I have a class like this: public class Profile { public int Id; public ProfileType Type; } public enum ProfileType { Admin, User } EF Core will create table Profiles with columns Id (int) and Type (int). Saving an enum as an int For the second enum, AddressType I don’t explicitly need to convert it from an enum to an int, Entity Framework will do this automatically (as pointed EF Core 5 can accommodate the many-to-many relationship without having to define the SeriesGenre entity, To store enums in a database as a property using EF Core, use pre-defined or build-in converters. I started by covering the old way of configuring the conversion and In this story, we will explore the ins and outs of value conversions in EF Core. Storing enums as strings since EF Core 2. I'am having trouble in enum, but in this example enum return string instead of int Seamless way to store and retrieve enums from a string field using EF Model. HasConversion<string>(); // Storing Numeric columns are handled directly by EF core. public enum Currency { EUR = 1, USD = 2, GBP = 3 } Let's say I have an enum as shown above. I've followed MSDN on how to handle enumerations in Code First for EF6. You could store a string that contains some form of a serialization of your list of enum: For instance "Western; Drama", or a JSON Its database enums are fully supported by the Npgsql EF integration. We will cover practical scenarios like converting enums to strings, encrypting sensitive data, and We can save the enums to the database as either string s or int s, and when reading them back populate the enum! Here’s how to do both. If you want to see this Nice solution! Tried it and it works. You can do this using a migration script or by running a SQL script. Sample. As you In September 2018 I wrote a new post explaining how to store enums as ints or strings with Entity Framework Core. Entity Converting Enum Properties to Strings Globally. An important thing to remember here is that you can only query on the JSON data using hand written SQL, resulting in rather complex SQL with CTEs and such. Define the PostgreSQL Enum type in the database: Ensure that the PostgreSQL Enum type is created in your database. 1. See: Store a Dictionary as a JSON string using EF Core 2. For EF to store the list, it needs a second table. 1+ : Property: public string[] Strings { get; set; } I just wanted to show a code example of how to do some string processing, and avoid an extra class for the list of The way enums work in EF is that they are just cast to the underlying type and are treated as if they were one of the following integral types int64, int32, int16, byte, sbyte (note unsigned integral types are not supported by EDM and therefore enums with unsigned underlying type won't work and also in the database enum columns are just columns Seems someone has been struggling with that and found solution. You can achieve it but it will require a bit of work. I am struggling to get the MatchSuccess to just store as a basic JSON() string block. An integer id matching the C# enum value, and a How to retrieve data with enum as string (EF Core) Ask Question Asked 5 years, 8 months ago. Then you can simply get description of them using a single join. Int32 being the default underlying type if none has been specified. One slip up in the code though; the converter has a type constraint for class so you can't use it on IList<Address>. All our projects are string enum apart from this one project that was farmed out to The EF enum type definitions live in conceptual layer. For presentation purposes in the client side, I do the following trick. RecurringDeposit)); But this You can achieve it but it will require a bit of work. 1 which would allow storing enums as strings. They are supported by EF but they don't get used by default. But you want to store a separate list of ints for each MyObject. query. For example if the query. EF Core 2. Note that OrderBy is an extension method and has implemented in both System. I hit a problem where I wanted to use Entity Framework to save the text value of an enum to the database rather than its numeric value. Then create columns in your tables to use this type. Name = 'Ready'. (Special code is still present for providers that are not updated and do not create mappings with converters. Clone the [Solved]How can i retrieve gender as a string like "gender": "Male" in my jsonResult, I'am using EntityFramework Core 2. com/alwill/DevTips/tree/master/EfCoreEnumCo Enum values in c# are always numbers to save memory. In that case your underlying type in the database would be some kind of string (e. So, using . Id-- exactly the extra table you want to avoid. EntityFrameworkCore. Queryable classes. No lookup table is stored nor the string names of the enum values, which makes it difficult to read the database data directly. /cc @ajcvickers @AndriySvyryd @smitpatel for use of PostgreSQL native enums as discriminators, which is I am in need of some guidance about a good way to store a List<DayOfWeek> on the database (SQL Server), I am using EF Core. For example, if you have an enum representing user Using enums in C# with EF Core is extremely easy and note that the use of a T4 template is completely optional, without a T4 template simply create a regular enum. The @Magnetron I can, but then it's a case of "what does Status 2 mean again? Hang on. Metadata. Member for instance will be stored "Member" string. Storing an int is much more space efficient than storing the names of the enum values as strings. the Value can be any type. SearchLike is "Fe" or "em", I'd like to get back every Female persons. Map the PostgreSQL Enum type in your DbContext: Unfortunately, this is one of the many shortfalls of Entity Framework. INNER JOIN Enums e ON e. 1 https: There is a feature in EF Core called value conversions which can also be really helpful when dealing with enums, however its simplicitly comes with limitations which might be a deal-breaker for you. HasConversion<int>(); is not needed anymore. It is better to store the int value of enumn in database instead of its description and use lookup tables. nvarchar(max)) and EF core makes the conversion on the client side There are other ways, btw, such as storing json or csv but I feel a moral obligation to avoid outlining In this example, I cast the enum to an string to store in the database, and when retrieving from the database I cast the stored string to an DeliveryPreference enum. Say I have a class like this: public class Job { public string Name { get; set; } // days in which the job has to be done public List<DayOfWeek> Days { If you have a list, it has to point to some entity. OnModelCreating(modelBuilder); modelBuilder. Define an extension method which will return back the value from the attribute. Property(p => p. I can see that EntityFrameworkCore ships Its database enums are fully supported by the Npgsql EF integration. In the entity class that has your enum You can use Value Conversions instead. 1. The difference here is the way of identifying Enum type properties, and due to the lack of easy public way of getting entity type builder (this property builder), the direct usage of SetProviderClrType metadata API instead of more Using reflection and expression-trees you can provide the parameters and then call OrderBy function, Instead of returning Expression<Func<Task, T>> and then calling OrderBy. A value conversion, unsurprisingly, automatically converts a value stored in the database into something else that you can use in code. Today we are looking at using string values in the DB for enums instead of int values. When querying the MembershipType table, the serialization and deserialization works well and as expected. Storing enums as strings improves database readability and makes it easier to understand the data when querying directly. Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers; Advertising & Talent Reach devs & technologists worldwide about your product, service or employer brand; OverflowAI GenAI features for Teams; OverflowAPI Train & fine-tune LLMs; Labs The future of collective knowledge sharing; About the company Visit the blog Unless I'm mistaken, this should work fine without migrations (i. Int16, Edm. Type) . 7) there is no other way than the one described in EF CORE 2. Similarly to CLR enums the EF enums have underlying type which is one of Edm. This is done by adding the following code, before any EF Core operations take place. UserRole. An appropriate place for this is in the static constructor on your DbContext class: If the enum just needs to be converted to a string, something like this should work: var converter = new EnumToStringConverter<HttpActionEnum>(); modelBuilder . I posted article and related suggestion about this problem. 1 also allows you to map these to strings in the database with value converters. The first one is for linq-to-objects and the latter is for linq You can use your own enum type in your EF model, instead of creating a new enum in the model designer. This is often much more useful than storing 1, 2 or 3 as a value as the meaning is conveyed with the information. I'am having Try this in your context class: base. By default, EntityFrameworkCore seems to store enum as int instead of string. net core 2. Byte, Edm. Starting with EF Core 2. My table looks like this. Entity Framework Core - ValueConverter with ValueComparer to convert Enum Example. If you have a list, it has to point to some entity. 1 The definition of the entity is as follows: public class PublishSource { [Key] [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption. This configuration changes that behavior by storing enums as their string names in the database. What's more, this is such a common scenario, EF Core includes a conversion class called EnumToStringConverter that does this for us. For example: CREATE TYPE entity_example_enum AS ENUM ( 'EXAMPLE_VALUE_1', 'EXAMPLE_VALUE_2' ); 2. – Your enumeration is based on an integral value and EF will create an int column behind the scene to store the value of the enum. Entity Framework Core using enum as FK. 0. Additional Npgsql configuration. SupportedDepositTypes. Saving an enum as an int For the second enum, AddressType I don’t explicitly need to convert it from an enum to an int, Entity Framework will do this automatically (as pointed Not sure I follow. 0, and facing trouble with using enum as a property type for a bigint column of a table built in PostgreSQL. PropertyBuilder. Benefits of Using Value Converters for Enums in EF Core. When I want something like a "string-based enum" I create a class to hold the constants like you did, except I make it a static class to prevent both unwanted instantiation and unwanted subclassing. By default, any enum properties in your model will be mapped to database integers. Builders. You can use ef-enum-to-lookup by Tim Abell. Linq. It appears that value conversions are being introduced in EF Core 2. GetStringValue(this Enum value) will return attribute value. for the sake of a few bytes I'm looking to clear the DB of magic numbers going forward. First, MySQL has an enum type which can look very much like a Boolean or restricted set of strings when set up that way. Entity<Profile>() . It also enforces only valid values are entered. Let's put that into practice using your example. Then you can define the enum like this. 1+ : Property: public string[] Strings { get; set; } I just wanted to show a code example of how to do some string processing, and avoid an extra class for the list of In case someone (myself included) runs into problems in the future when working with filtering a Postgres array of enums mapped as strings in EF Core, I'm just gonna make it clear that the workaround above works for arrays too, namely: This does not work. should be able to map it to a char property, and therefore your statement could be: s => s. Status WHERE e. If you want a string you should be using a Dictionary which contains a KEY and Value. I am upgrading my project from Entity Framework Core 3. 5. 0/2. HasConversion or something i get this error: postgresql; entity-framework How to create a table corresponding to enum in EF Core Code First? 1. Int32 or Edm. This conversion can be from one value to another of the same type (for example, encrypting strings) or from a value of one type to a value of another type (for example, converting enum values to and from string values in the I have a Person model with a Gender enum poperty which is stored as a string in the database. EnsureCreated()). 2 project. It's not a good idea to store them as string but you can create look up tables for your enums with ef enum to lookup and it is very easy to use. Int64 with Edm. Identity)] public int Id { get; set; } [Required] public string Name { get; set; } [Required] public Dictionary<string, string> Converting Enum Properties to Strings Globally. However, the Npgsql provider also allows you to map your CLR enums to database enum types. So the column size would be In this article, I documented a better way to convert enums to strings using Entity Framework Core. I'd prefer a second table to be produced, the values of which would follow the definition of the enumerator in C# code. HasConversion%2A: [!code-csharpConversionByClrType] When I try to cast to string or run . when using ctx. e. These particular columns are an array of enums. Modified 4 years, I'am using EntityFramework Core 2. However, I would like to store the value in the database as a string. There are couple of other options worth considering though: If your database supports it, use built in database enums. There are multiple reasons why you shouldn't just shove them all in a string, but the two most clear ones (IMO) are that it makes it impossible to query for those MyObjects for which Number contains 1. eStateCode. By default, EF Core stores enum properties as their underlying numeric values. Your enum should instead look like: [Flags] public enum Actions { None = 0, MoveUp = 1, MoveDown = 2, MoveRight = 4, MoveLeft = 8 } Now, let's say, you set your enum value to include the MoveUp and MoveRight flags:. For example, Postgres enums. This flexibility makes it easy to work with different That's it! User. EF Core reads this value as an Integer and casts it to the Type when you send a query. Define an attribute class which will contain the string value for enum. Unfortunately the code below throws an exception. Entity framework Core - Scaffolding enum. and enter your type: namespace. g. For more information on getting started with EF, consult the EF getting started documentation. In this article, I have walked through how to store and retrieve enums as strings with Entity Framework Core. Here's how: In the model designer, rght click on surface and select: Add New -> Enum Type In the dialog, just set checkbox: Reference external type. This conversion can be from one value to another of the same type (for example, encrypting strings) or from a value of one type to a value of another type (for example, converting enum values to and from strings in the database. public enum Color {Black, White, Red, Blue} EF Core filter Enums stored as string with LIKE operator. Database. ) AutoMapper allows you to configure how ViewModels can be mapped to Entities, if some properties should change, from integer entities to string values for view models, maybe you want an enum to really be a string in the "view" and only the enum for the db, with auto mapper it allows you to configure all these scenarious, and through convention I'm trying to set String-Enum value converter to all enum properties of all entities in my EF Core Code-First project. Therefore, you have a Type that you can use Type. F. Where(d => d. Github link https://github. . If you need to store a string representation (not recommended, but sometimes necessary), you can add a custom converter in the fluent API to Applying [JsonConverter(typeof(JsonStringEnumConverter))] to public Category Name { get; set; } seems to have done the trick. Running In September 2018 I wrote a new post explaining how to store enums as ints or strings with Entity Framework Core. 1 to storing string enum values, rather than ints. Using value converters in EF Core for enums offers several advantages, which include: Flexibility: Value converters allow you to store enum values in various formats in the database, such as chars or strings, without changing the enum definition in your code. If your column is char(1) or nchar(1) in SQL Server, E. 2 with Asp. The Value converters allow property values to be converted when reading from or writing to the database. Type = 'Status' and e. Contains(DepositType. HaveConversion<string?> to get a null-able enum property stored as a null-able string. 1 - How to efficiently handle large, infrequently accessed columns? 19 EF Core: use a dictionary property. xib dcnam xfrvpm ntix ftfvwcl pydbn wsqfzv mkasnw gvcls abmg