Should You Initialize Navigation Properties in EF Code First?

EF Code FIRST's navigation attribute initialization

In EF Code First, developers often encounter a problem: whether the initialization navigation attribute is needed when defining the domain class. Some people are more inclined to not initialize, while others choose to initialize in the constructor. This article aims to explore the advantages and disadvantages of each method and to guide when and how to use them.

Collection and reference

In this case, a key difference is that the navigation attributes of the collection and the reference navigation attributes are expressed. Collection (such as ) is a container of the entity, and reference (such as ) indicates a single entity.

Collection: The least influence of initialization ICollection<Address> License

For setting, the initialization of navigation attributes has the least impact because it will not create any association between entities. It is mainly used to prevent air reference abnormalities, which is convenient for testing and enhanced set operations. However, it is worth noting that explicit loading may require additional inspections to determine whether the set has been loaded.

Reference attributes: initialization may lead to problems

However, for reference, initialization in the constructor may cause several problems:

The problem of coverage : When EF materialized objects or execution delay loading, it will not cover the reference attribute of initialized initialization. This may cause incorrect database preservation and interfere with the restoration of the relationship.

Relations

: The initialized reference navigation attributes will prevent the repair of the relationship. This may lead to incompletely filling in navigation attributes.

• Entity Framework Core Precautions
• In Entity Framework Core, the behavior of initialized reference navigation attributes has a slightly different meaning:
Relations

: Initialization no longer affects relationship repair. But

Load : The reference that has been initialized will not be covered during the delay loading period.

Conclusion

• It is generally recommended to avoid initialization of reference navigation properties in the constructor. For setting, whether to initialize is a preference, but it has the least influence.

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