Code First: Independent associations vs. Foreign key associations?

Question

I have a mental debate with myself every time I start working on a new project and I am designing my POCOs. I have seen many tutorials/code samples that seem to favor fo

Answer 1

Use both. And make your entity references virtual to allow for lazy loading. Like this:

public class Order
{
  public int ID { get; set; }
  public int CustomerID { get; set; }
  public virtual Customer Customer { get; set; } // <-- Customer object
  ...
}

This saves on unnecessary DB lookups, allows lazy loading, and allows you to easily see/set the ID if you know what you want it to be. Note that having both does not change your table structure in any way.