How to Use enum with Entity Framework 5 ?

What is enum?

• The enum keyword is used to declare an enumeration
• A distinct type consisting of a set of named constants called the enumerator list
• Every enumeration type has an underlying type
• The default underlying type of the enumeration elements is int
• By default, the first enumerator has the value 0
• And the value of each successive enumerator is increased by 1
• EF 5 enum can have the Types as Byte, Int16, Int32, Int64 or SByte 
• You can download the Source code Here from the Original Article 

Let's take a simple example  

E.g. 1 :

enum Days {Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri};

In this enumeration, Sat is 0, Sun is 1, Mon is 2, and so forth

E.g. 2 : Enumerators can have initializers to override the default values 

enum Days {Sat=1, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri};

In this enumeration, the sequence of elements is forced to start from 1 instead of 0

How to Use enum with Entity Framework 5 Code First ?

• This feature is Latest improvement of EF 5

Step 1 : Open Visual Studio 2012

Step 2 : File ==> New Project as EF5EnumSupport

Step 3 : Right Click Your Solution and then Click Manage NuGet Packages...

Step 4 : Click Online Tab and Then Type Entity Framework 5 on Search Box

After that Select EntityFramework and Click Install

Step 5 : Click I Accept

After the above Step, below mentioned DLLs (Red Color) have added to the Project

Step 6 : Add ==> New Class and make it as enum Type Course

Solution Explorer 

Course.cs  

namespace EF5EnumSupport.Models
 {
    public enum Course
    {
        Mcsd = 1,
        Mcse,
        Mcsa,
        Mcitp
    }
 }

Step 7 : Add ==> New Class as Student

Student.cs

namespace EF5EnumSupport.Models {
   public class Student
   {
       public int Id { get; set; }
       public string Name { get; set; }
       public Course Course { get; set; }
   }
}

Step 8 : Create DbContext derived Class as StudentContext

StudentContext.cs

using System.Data.Entity;
namespace EF5EnumSupport.Models
{
   public class StudentContext : DbContext
   {
       public DbSet<Student> Students { get; set; }
   }
}

Step 9 : Console application's Main Method is as below

Program.cs

using System;
using System.Linq;
using EF5EnumSupport.Models;
namespace EF5EnumSupport
{
  public class Program
  {
     static void Main(string[] args)
     {
       using (var context = new StudentContext())
       {
        context.Students.Add(new Student { Name = "Sampath Lokuge",
        Course = Course.Mcsd });
        context.SaveChanges();
         var studentQuery = (from d in context.Students
                             where d.Course == Course.Mcsd
                             select d).FirstOrDefault();
         if (studentQuery != null)
          {
           Console.WriteLine("Student Id: {0} Name: {1} Course : {2}",
               studentQuery.Id, studentQuery.Name,
               studentQuery.Course);           }
         }
     }
  }
}

The brand new enum support allows you to have enum properties in your entity classes

Step 10 : Run the Console Application

DEBUG ==> Start Without Debugging (Ctrl + F5)

Step 11 : Where's the Database ?

• By default the database will be created on the LocalDB instance
• The Entity Framework names the database after the fully qualified name of the derived context
• i.e. EF5EnumSupport.Models.StudentContext

  SQL Server Object Explorer in Visual Studio 2012 is as below

  

View Data on Students Table

What is LocalDb ?

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB is an execution mode of SQL Server Express targeted to program developers
• LocalDB installation copies a minimal set of files necessary to start the SQL Server Database Engine

That's It.You're Done.

Conclusion

• Entity Framework 5 brings a number of improvements and enum Support in Code First is one of them
• You can see that when you use enum type with your model class, Visual Studio 2012 gives intellisense support out of the box
• It's really awesome new feature of the Entity Framework 5
• So Enjoy it

I hope this helps to you. Comments and feedback greatly appreciated.