How to map a string to Uri type using the Entity Framework?

Question

My database contains a column of type string, that represents a URL. I'm now wondering how its possible to map this string to a Uri object using the Entity Framework.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Use a partial class, w/ a custom property:

    public partial class MyClass
    {
        public Uri MyUri
        {
            get
                { return new Uri(StringUriPropertyFromDB); }
        }
    }

You can make the string property private in the EF designer, if you want. Note you can't use custom properties like this in LINQ to entities, though.