Most efficient way to update with LINQ to SQL

Question

Can I update my employee record as given in the function below or do I have to make a query of the employee collection first and then update the data?

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Answer 1

This is a function in my Repository class which I use to update entities

protected void Attach(TEntity entity)
{
   try
    {
       _dataContext.GetTable<TEntity>().Attach(entity);
       _dataContext.Refresh(RefreshMode.KeepCurrentValues, entity);
    }
    catch (DuplicateKeyException ex) //Data context knows about this entity so just update values
    {
       _dataContext.Refresh(RefreshMode.KeepCurrentValues, entity);
    }
}

Where TEntity is your DB Class and depending on you setup you might just want to do

_dataContext.Attach(entity);

Answer 2

You cannot attach a modified entity to a DataContext when there is no RowVersion column. Instead you could store original entity in your application as long as maintaining a copy for data changes. Then when changes need to be saved you could attach original entity to a DataContext, change its values to match the modified entity values and submit changes.

Here is an example:

public int updateEmployee(App3_EMPLOYEE employee, App3_EMPLOYEE originalEmployee)
{
    DBContextDataContext db = new DBContextDataContext();
    db.App3_EMPLOYEEs.Attach(originalEmployee);

    // TODO: Copy values from employee to original employee

    db.SubmitChanges();
    return employee.PKEY;
}

Update:

There is a table in the database with columns ID, Name, Notes

// fetch an employee which will not be changed in the application
Employee original;
using(var db = new TestDbDataContext())
{
  original = db.Employees.First(e => e.ID == 2);
}

// create an instance to work with
var modified = new Employee {ID = original.ID, Name = original.Name, Notes = original.Notes};

// change some info
modified.Notes = string.Format("new notes as of {0}", DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString());  
// update
using(var db = new TestDbDataContext())
{
  db.Employees.Attach(original);
  original.Notes = modified.Notes;
  db.SubmitChanges();
}

Answer 3

Use this extend method for update all properties that are column attributes:

public static void SaveToOriginal<T>(this T original, T actual)
    {
        foreach (var prop in typeof(T).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance)
            .Where(info => info.GetCustomAttribute<System.Data.Linq.Mapping.ColumnAttribute>() != null))
        {
            prop.SetValue(original, prop.GetValue(actual));
        }
    }

I mean, first you recover the original from database, use the method to map all columns attributes from new element to original, and at last do a submit. I hope this helps.

Answer 4

I find following work around to this problem :

1) fetch and update entity (I am going to use this way because it's ok for me )

public int updateEmployee(App3_EMPLOYEE employee)
{
    AppEmployeeDataContext db = new AppEmployeeDataContext();
    App3_EMPLOYEE emp = db.App3_EMPLOYEEs.Single(e => e.PKEY == employee.PKEY);
    emp.FIRSTNAME = employee.FIRSTNAME;//copy property one by one 
    db.SubmitChanges();
    return employee.PKEY;
}

2) disable ObjectTrackingEnabled as following

// but in this case lazy loading is not supported


    public AppEmployeeDataContext() : 
                    base(global::LinqLibrary.Properties.Settings.Default.AppConnect3DBConnectionString, mappingSource)
            {
                this.ObjectTrackingEnabled = false;
                OnCreated();
            }

3) Detach all the related objects

partial class App3_EMPLOYEE
{
    public void Detach()
    {
        this._APP3_EMPLOYEE_EXTs = default(EntityRef<APP3_EMPLOYEE_EXT>);
    }
}

 public int updateEmployee(App3_EMPLOYEE employee)
{
    AppEmployeeDataContext db = new AppEmployeeDataContext();
    employee.Detach();
    db.App3_EMPLOYEEs.Attach(employee,true);
    db.SubmitChanges();
    return employee.PKEY;
}

4) use Time stamp in the column

 http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/135659.aspx

5) Create stored procedure for updating your data and call it by db context

Answer 5

You can attach a unattached modified entity, by using this overload:

db.App3_EMPLOYEEs.Attach(employee, true);//Attach as modfieied

Note that for this to work you need in your table a "Version" column of type "timestamp"

Answer 6

There is a discussion on this topic here at MSDN s recommend you to use an IsVersion field and the Attach method