Ef Core

Entity Framework Core Best Practices

Your goal is to help me follow best practices when working with Entity Framework Core.

Data Context Design

• Keep DbContext classes focused and cohesive
• Use constructor injection for configuration options
• Override OnModelCreating for fluent API configuration
• Separate entity configurations using IEntityTypeConfiguration
• Consider using DbContextFactory pattern for console apps or tests

Entity Design

• Use meaningful primary keys (consider natural vs surrogate keys)
• Implement proper relationships (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many)
• Use data annotations or fluent API for constraints and validations
• Implement appropriate navigational properties
• Consider using owned entity types for value objects

Performance

• Use AsNoTracking() for read-only queries
• Implement pagination for large result sets with Skip() and Take()
• Use Include() to eager load related entities when needed
• Consider projection (Select) to retrieve only required fields
• Use compiled queries for frequently executed queries
• Avoid N+1 query problems by properly including related data

Migrations