How to rename a database column in Entity Framework 5 Code First migrations without losing data?

Question

I got the default ASP.NET MVC 4 template successfully running with EF 5.0 Code First Migrations. However, when I update a model property name, the corresponding table column dat

Answer 1

As already said, replace the AddColumn and DropColumn that is automatically generated with RenameColumn.

Example:

namespace MyProject.Model.Migrations
{
    using System;
    using System.Data.Entity.Migrations;

    public partial class RenameMyColumn : DbMigration
    {
        public override void Up()
        {
            // Remove the following auto-generated lines
            AddColumn("dbo.MyTable", "NewColumn", c => c.String(nullable: false, maxLength: 50));
            DropColumn("dbo.MyTable", "OldColumn");

            // Add this line
            RenameColumn("dbo.MyTable", "OldColumn", "NewColumn");
        }

        public override void Down()
        {
            // Remove the following auto-generated lines
            AddColumn("dbo.MyTable", "OldColumn", c => c.String(nullable: false, maxLength: 50));
            DropColumn("dbo.MyTable", "NewColumn");

            // Add this line
            RenameColumn("dbo.MyTable", "NewColumn", "OldColumn");
        }
    }
}