How can I make EF Core database first use Enums?

Question

I'm using EF Core with database-first approach using the "Scaffold-DbContext"-command to generate my DbContext / Entities.

How can I instruct Scaffold-DbContext that a certain field in a certain table should generate code to use an Enum instead of just an int?

This is how you used to do it in regular EF: https://www.devu.com/cs-asp/lesson-69-mapping-enum-types-entity-properties-framework-designer/

Example

This enum is already defined in code:

public enum StateEnum {   Ok = 1,   Fail = 2 } 

This is what Scaffold-DbContext gives me

public partial class Foo {     public int Id { get; set; }     public int State { get; set; } } 

This is what I want it to create:

public partial class Foo {     public int Id { get; set; }     public StateEnum State { get; set; } } 

Answer 1

Doesn't value conversion in EF Core 2.1 do what you need now?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/modeling/value-conversions

Quick Example:

  entity.Property(e => e.MyEnumField)             .HasMaxLength(50)             .HasConversion(                 v => v.ToString(),                 v => (MyEnum)Enum.Parse(typeof(MyEnum),v))                 .IsUnicode(false); 

Answer 2

Starting with Entity Framework Core 2.1, EF supports Value Conversions to specifically address scenarios where a property needs to be mapped to a different type for storage.

Specifically for Enums, you can use the provided EnumToStringConverter or EnumToNumberConverter.