How can you dynamically select a table with entity framework 4.x?

Question

Suppose I have a database named MyDatabase which has two tables - MyTable1 and MyTable2. Using the Code First approach with Entity Framework 4.x and .NET 4, I have generated a context named MyDatabaseContext which contains MyTable1s and MyTable2s.

Normally, tables are accessed like MyDatabaseContext.Table1s.<Command>. In my database many tables share a couple of common fields (e.g. CreatedOn, ModifiedOn). I would like to to be able to dynamically substitute a table name so I can execute the same query against any table.

What I really want (and which does not seem to be available) is something like MyDatabaseContext[ContextTableName].<Command>.

Does anyone have any idea if such functionality exists to dynamically select a table at query time.

Answer 1

Check out dynamic linq. Here is an article about it from Scott Guthrie: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/07/dynamic-linq-part-1-using-the-linq-dynamic-query-library.aspx