Category Entity Framework Core

Ordering, Filtering, and Paging with EF Core

I always tell people that EF Core is one of those tools that looks very simple in the beginning. You do a few queries, call ToList, and everything feels fine. Then the business side comes in and suddenly you are…

Tracking vs NoTracking Queries in EF Core: Performance Matters

If you have been working with EF Core for a while, you probably stumbled on something called tracking and no tracking queries. When I first encountered these, I honestly did not pay much attention. I thought EF Core was smart…

Unit Testing EF Core Code with In-Memory Database

When I started working with Entity Framework Core (EF Core), unit testing wasn’t something I gave much attention to. I was more focused on building features that worked. But as my projects grew bigger, especially in systems where business rules…

Integrating EF Core with Minimal APIs

When I first tried using EF Core with Minimal APIs, I honestly thought it would be just a smaller version of a regular Web API controller setup. I was wrong. It’s simple, yes, but it forces you to think differently…

EF Core with Blazor WebAssembly: Handling Local and Server Data

When I first started mixing EF Core with Blazor WebAssembly, I honestly thought it would be as simple as plugging in my DbContext on the client side and running some queries. I mean, why not, right? Just pull the data…

EF Core with Dependency Injection in ASP.NET Core

When I first started using EF Core inside an ASP.NET Core project, I honestly didn’t think too much about dependency injection. I just wanted to run queries, get data, and move on. But after a few projects and some mistakes…

LINQ with EF Core: From Simple Queries to Real Business Logic

When I first started with Entity Framework Core, I thought LINQ was just a convenient way to avoid writing SQL manually. And honestly, that’s how most of us begin, just trying to fetch a few records without touching raw SQL.…

Seeding Your Database with EF Core the Right Way

When I first started using EF Core in one of my projects, I thought seeding data was just about throwing some “default” values into the database. You know, like inserting an admin user or a few predefined roles so the…

Using Data Annotations vs Fluent API in EF Core: What I Learned from a Real Project

In one of my previous projects, a complex multi-tenant inventory management system. I had to make a big decision early on while working with Entity Framework Core: should I use Data Annotations or the Fluent API? At first, it felt…

Your First EF Core Migration: Step-by-Step with Real Examples

I still remember the first time I ran my EF Core migration in one of my projects, it was for a payment system where we needed to store EMV transaction logs. I thought, “This will probably take the whole day,…