Entity Framework Is it possible to add an ASSOCIATION between Primary Keys and a Foreign Key

Question

I\'ve got the following entities on my EDMX :-

These two entites were generated by Update Mode

Answer 1

For proper DB normalization, first thing is that primary keys must be only CountryId and StateId fields - the main Id fields for each table.

And ss I see from the description Name & IsoCode and Name & CountryId should be actually Unique keys, not primary.

Then the model class State should have a field:

public Country Country { get; set; }

Now EF have very good examples and since 4.3.1 + it fully supports Code first / DB first models, which I think will ease solving this. EF 5 have more compatibility updates so I think it wont be a problem for legacy DB engines.

Answer 2

In EF (3.5 and 4.0) FKs MUST point to Primary Keys.

But you appear to be attempting to point to a Candidate Key (i.e. [Countries].[CountryId]

I know that this is something the EF team are considering for the next version though :)

Hope this helps

Alex