Create Databases using EntityFramework 5 in C# programming

Entity Framework is an open source object-relational (ORM) framework for ADO.NET. It allows user to create a model by writing code in EF designer. The releases are improving from entity framework 3.5 and onwards. Entity Framework 5 is the stable version for visual studio 2010 and 2012 and updated soon with the latest features.

The main advantages of using Entity Framework 5 are:

Speed - You do not have to worry about creating a DB you just start coding. Good for developers coming from a programming background without much DBA experience.
Simple - you do not have a edmx model to update or maintain.

Entity framework 5 released with some advanced features like enum support, table-valued functions and performance improvements. In this article we will create a database using entity framework 5 code first approach.

Steps of Creating Database through Entity Framework

Create a Project ClassLibrary in Visual Studio.
Install EntityFramework from Package Manager Console (required internet connection) using

PM> install-package entityframework

Remove InBuilt Class i.e "Class1".
Add a new class “Student”.
Add another class DataContext (Name may be change) inherited by DbContext

DbContext is in System.Data.Entity Namespace.

Write the below code in DataContext class

public DataContext()

:base("Database Name")

{

if(!Database.Exists("Database Name"))

Database.SetInitializer(new DropCreateDatabaseAlways<DataContext>());

}

public DbSet<Student> Student { get; set; }

Add a new project2 (Window Form Application) that will be used to execute constructor of DataContext class.
Install Entity Framework 5 in this new project also.
Create an object of DataContext class in Form1 Constructor.
Now run project2 and your Database has been created.

When we will execute the given command to install entity framework, it will execute the stable version i.e. entity framework 5.

Download code file

Insert foreign key in database