How to fix the datetime2 out-of-range conversion error using DbContext and SetInitializer?

Question

I\'m using the DbContext and Code First APIs introduced with Entity Framework 4.1.

The data model uses basic data types such as string

Answer 1

Based on user @andygjp's answer, its better if you override the base Db.SaveChanges() method and add a function to override any date which does not fall between SqlDateTime.MinValue and SqlDateTime.MaxValue.

Here is the sample code

public class MyDb : DbContext
{
    public override int SaveChanges()
    {
        UpdateDates();
        return base.SaveChanges();
    }

    private void UpdateDates()
    {
        foreach (var change in ChangeTracker.Entries().Where(x => (x.State == EntityState.Added || x.State == EntityState.Modified)))
        {
            var values = change.CurrentValues;
            foreach (var name in values.PropertyNames)
            {
                var value = values[name];
                if (value is DateTime)
                {
                    var date = (DateTime)value;
                    if (date < SqlDateTime.MinValue.Value)
                    {
                        values[name] = SqlDateTime.MinValue.Value;
                    }
                    else if (date > SqlDateTime.MaxValue.Value)
                    {
                        values[name] = SqlDateTime.MaxValue.Value;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Taken from the user @sky-dev's comment on https://stackoverflow.com/a/11297294/9158120

Answer 2

You have to ensure that Start is greater than or equal to SqlDateTime.MinValue (January 1, 1753) - by default Start equals DateTime.MinValue (January 1, 0001).

Answer 3

You can make the field nullable, if that suits your specific modeling concerns. A null date won't be coerced to a date that isn't within the range of the SQL DateTime type the way a default value would. Another option is to explicitly map to a different type, perhaps with,

.HasColumnType("datetime2")

Answer 4

I had the same issue and in my case I was setting the date to new DateTime() instead of DateTime.Now

Answer 5

In my case, after some refactoring in EF6, my tests were failing with the same error message as the original poster but my solution had nothing to do with the DateTime fields.

I was just missing a required field when creating the entity. Once I added the missing field, the error went away. My entity does have two DateTime? fields but they weren't the problem.

Answer 6

I'm using Database First and when this error happened to me my solution was to force ProviderManifestToken="2005" in edmx file (making the models compatible with SQL Server 2005). Don't know if something similar is possible for Code First.