Generic method to retrieve DbSet<T> from DbContext

Question

I'm using the Entity Framework with a large database (made up of more than 200 tables).

Trying to create a generic method that returns the DbSet<T> of a specific table T (i.e. class, which can be TableA).

The entity class that was (automatically) created using the entity data model looks like so:

public partial class sqlEntities : DbContext
{

    public virtual DbSet<TableA> TableA { get; set; }
    public virtual DbSet<TableB> TableB { get; set; }
    public virtual DbSet<TableC> TableC { get; set; }
    ... // other methods

}

My main class is like this

public class TableModifier
{
   // Should return first 10 elements from a table of that type T
   public IQueryable<T> GetFromDatabase<T>() where T : EntityObject
   {
       try
       {
           using (sqlEntities ctx = new sqlEntities())
           {
               // Get the DbSet of the type T from the entities model (i.e. DB)
               DbSet<T> dbSet = ctx.Set<T>();
               return dbSet.Take(10);
           }
       }
       catch (Exception ex)
       {
           // Invalid type was provided (i.e. table does not exist in database)
           throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Entity", ex);
       }
   }
   ... // other methods
}

I have to set a constraint where T : EntityObject on T to be within the EntityObject bounds. If there was no such constraint then the DbSet<T> dbSet would complain (i.e. T must be a reference type) that it might be getting more than it expects in terms of types (based on this).

The problem occurs when I try to actually call the method with a specific type.

 [TestMethod]
 public void Test_GetTest()
 {
     TableModifier t_modifier = new TableModifier();

     // The get method now only accepts types of type EntityObject
     IQueryable<TableA> i_q = t_modifier.GetFromDatabase<TableA>();
 }

It gives an error:

There is no implicit reference conversion from 'TableMod.TableA' to
'System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.EntityObject'.

How can I (cast?) the TableA type as an EntityObject if I know it exists for that entity model?

Though this is incorrect syntax (and logic) this is what I'm after:

 t_modifier.GetFromDatabase<(EntityObject)TableA>();

How can I define the TableA (along with all the other 200 tables) type to be a part of EntityObject?

---

A potential solution

Turns out my constraint was too specific, all I needed to change was from where T : IEntity to

where T : class

So the T is what the DbSet<T> initially expected, a class type

Saves the trouble of having to add implementations to the 200+ table classes, TableA, TableB, ...

Then of course there's other problems such as changing the return type from IQueryable<T> to List<T> since the IQueryable would otherwise be returned outside of the scope of DbContext (i.e. sqlEntities) rendering it useless.

Answer 1

Why don't you try changing your constrain to class instead of EntityObject

public IQueryable<T> GetFromDatabase<T>() where T : class

Answer 2

I had the same requirement and solved it by using the following:

public static void GetEntitiesGeneric<TEntity>()// where TEntity : System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.EntityObject  <-- NO LONGER NEEDED
{
    try
    {
        var key = typeof(TEntity).Name;
        var adapter = (IObjectContextAdapter)MyDbContext;
        var objectContext = adapter.ObjectContext;
        // 1. we need the container for the conceptual model
        var container = objectContext.MetadataWorkspace.GetEntityContainer(
            objectContext.DefaultContainerName, System.Data.Entity.Core.Metadata.Edm.DataSpace.CSpace);
        // 2. we need the name given to the element set in that conceptual model
        var name = container.BaseEntitySets.Where((s) => s.ElementType.Name.Equals(key)).FirstOrDefault().Name;
        // 3. finally, we can create a basic query for this set
        var query = objectContext.CreateQuery<TEntity>("[" + name + "]");

        // Work with your query ...
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Entity Type supplied for Lookup", ex);
    }
}

The code was taken from Using Generics for Lookup Tables in Entity Framework and adapted for EF 6 using the DbContext (first part of the method where the objectcontext is extracted from the dbcontext

Hope it helps