How do I upsert a record in ADO.NET EF 4.1?

Question

I'm trying to accomplish something really simple and I can't find how to do it using Entity Framework 4.1.

I want a controller method that accepts an object and then does an UPSERT (either an insert or update depending on whether the record exists in the database).

I am using a natural key, so there's no way for me to look at my POCO and tell if it's new or not.

This is how I am doing it, and it seems wrong to me:

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult SaveMyEntity(MyEntity entity)
{            
    MyContainer db = new MyContainer(); // DbContext
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        var existing =
            db.MyEntitys.Find(entity.MyKey);
        if (existing == null)
        {
            db.MyEntitys.Add(entity);
        }
        else
        {
            existing.A = entity.A;
            existing.B = entity.B;
            db.Entry(existing).State = EntityState.Modified;
        }
        db.SaveChanges();
        return Json(new { Result = "Success" });
    }
}

Ideally, the whole thing would just be something like this:

db.MyEntities.AddOrModify(entity);

Answer 1

Unfortunately there is no way to do this without querying database or using stored procedure. The minimalistic code should be:

public void AddOrModify<T>(T entity, string key) where T : class, IEntity // Implements MyKey 
{
     using (var context = new MyContainer())
     {
         if (context.Set<T>().Any(e => e.MyKey == key))
         {
              context.Entry(entity).State = EntityState.Modified;
         } 
         else
         {
              context.Entry(entity).State = EntityState.Added;
         }

         context.SaveChanges();
     }
}