Entity Framework SaveChanges error details

Question

When saving changes with SaveChanges on a data context is there a way to determine which Entity causes an error? For example, sometimes I'll forget to assign a date to a non-nullable date field and get "Invalid Date Range" error, but I get no information about which entity or which field it's caused by (I can usually track it down by painstakingly going through all my objects, but it's very time consuming). Stack trace is pretty useless as it only shows me an error at the SaveChanges call without any additional information as to where exactly it happened.

Note that I'm not looking to solve any particular problem I have now, I would just like to know in general if there's a way to tell which entity/field is causing a problem.

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Quick sample of a stack trace as an example - in this case an error happened because CreatedOn date was not set on IAComment entity, however it's impossible to tell from this error/stack trace

    [SqlTypeException: SqlDateTime overflow. Must be between 1/1/1753 12:00:00 AM and 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM.]
   System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlDateTime.FromTimeSpan(TimeSpan value) +2127345
   System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlDateTime.FromDateTime(DateTime value) +232
   System.Data.SqlClient.MetaType.FromDateTime(DateTime dateTime, Byte cb) +46
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.WriteValue(Object value, MetaType type, Byte scale, Int32 actualLength, Int32 encodingByteSize, Int32 offset, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) +4997789
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.TdsExecuteRPC(_SqlRPC[] rpcArray, Int32 timeout, Boolean inSchema, SqlNotificationRequest notificationRequest, TdsParserStateObject stateObj, Boolean isCommandProc) +6248
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async) +987
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result) +162
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method) +32
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method) +141
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +12
   System.Data.Common.DbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +10
   System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.DynamicUpdateCommand.Execute(UpdateTranslator translator, EntityConnection connection, Dictionary`2 identifierValues, List`1 generatedValues) +8084396
   System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update(IEntityStateManager stateManager, IEntityAdapter adapter) +267

[UpdateException: An error occurred while updating the entries. See the inner exception for details.]
   System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update(IEntityStateManager stateManager, IEntityAdapter adapter) +389
   System.Data.EntityClient.EntityAdapter.Update(IEntityStateManager entityCache) +163
   System.Data.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChanges(SaveOptions options) +609
   IADAL.IAController.Save(IAHeader head) in C:\Projects\IA\IADAL\IAController.cs:61
   IA.IAForm.saveForm(Boolean validate) in C:\Projects\IA\IA\IAForm.aspx.cs:198
   IA.IAForm.advance_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Projects\IA\IA\IAForm.aspx.cs:287
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +118
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +112
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +10
   System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +13
   System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +36
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +5019

Answer 1

One option is to handle the ObjectContext.SavingChanges Event, which gives you a chance to perform validation on entities before the changes are saved and even cancel the save if necessary. This way you can make sure any non-nullable properties are set before trying to save changes, and avoid having to rely on exception handling.

Answer 2

If all you need to do is see the actual inner exception instead, all you have to do is put the save changes inside of a try block, catch the exception and look at it.

I do it all the time and it works perfectly.