Generic method to retrieve DbSet from DbContext

Question

I\'m using the Entity Framework with a large database (made up of more than 200 tables).

Trying to create a generic method that returns the DbSet

Answer 1

I had the same requirement and solved it by using the following:

public static void GetEntitiesGeneric()// where TEntity : System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.EntityObject  <-- NO LONGER NEEDED
{
    try
    {
        var key = typeof(TEntity).Name;
        var adapter = (IObjectContextAdapter)MyDbContext;
        var objectContext = adapter.ObjectContext;
        // 1. we need the container for the conceptual model
        var container = objectContext.MetadataWorkspace.GetEntityContainer(
            objectContext.DefaultContainerName, System.Data.Entity.Core.Metadata.Edm.DataSpace.CSpace);
        // 2. we need the name given to the element set in that conceptual model
        var name = container.BaseEntitySets.Where((s) => s.ElementType.Name.Equals(key)).FirstOrDefault().Name;
        // 3. finally, we can create a basic query for this set
        var query = objectContext.CreateQuery("[" + name + "]");

        // Work with your query ...
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Entity Type supplied for Lookup", ex);
    }
}

The code was taken from Using Generics for Lookup Tables in Entity Framework and adapted for EF 6 using the DbContext (first part of the method where the objectcontext is extracted from the dbcontext

Hope it helps