Update multiple columns in MVC Entity Framework

Question

I have table with more than 25 Fields in it. It has some column with huge data (nvarchar(MAX)). It has User table like :

ID  // Primary key 
Name
Mail
Contact
RegFees
.
.
. //  about 25 Fields
Narration   // Nvarchar(Max)  may have upto 10000 chars
Tag        // Nvarchar(Max)  may have upto 15000 chars

Now i have to update only Name,Mail,Contact fields in it.

I have gone through several so posts like update 1 field, update multiple fields. But these require data to be loaded for that specific user ID and then Update it like :

 var u = dc.Users.Where(a =>a.ID.Equals(i.ID)).FirstOrDefault();
 if (u != null)
   {   
    // Note : ALL the data of 25+ columns is loaded including nvarchar(Max)
    // it will decrease performance as Whole Data is loaded first.

    u.Name = i.Name;
    u.Mail = i.Mail;
    u.Contact = i.Contact;
    }

is there any better way that does not require to load entire data ?

Answer 1

You can follow the below approach for updating few fields in a table.

dc.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("Update [User] Set Name = @Name, Mail = @Mail, Contact = @Contact Where ID = @ID", new SqlParameter("@Name", "YourName"), new SqlParameter("@Mail", "newMail"), new SqlParameter("@Contact", "newContact"), new SqlParameter("@ID", 1));

Answer 2

If you want a EFish approach (no SQL statement) you can treat your UPDATE as a batch statement using Entity Framework Extensions, now re-branded Entity Framework plus.

I have used the old version, but the one seems to work similarly. For your particular case:

dc.Users.Where(u => 
    u.ID = userID)
    .Update(x => new User() 
          { 
              Name = name, 
              Mail = mail, 
              Contact = contact
          });

AFAIK, this will directly issue an UPDATE against the database (it is not included in the transaction by default). However, a custom transaction (i.e. TransactionScope`) can be used when needed.