Entity Framework 5 do not save array string

Question

i have a simple array inside a model using the entity framework 5. The array will not saved inside the table.

Model

public class MyModel: IEntity
{
    [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public IList<string> MyArray { get; set; }
}

Config

    DbContext.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = true;
    DbContext.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
    DbContext.Configuration.ValidateOnSaveEnabled = false;

Initializer

internal class DatabaseInitializer : DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<DatabaseContext>
{
    protected override void Seed(DatabaseContext context)
    {
        context.MyModels.Add(new MyModel {
           MyArray = new [] { "Value1", "Value2" }
        });
   }
}

Any hint why this does' not work. MyArray not event appear as a column.

do you know a database where you have a column type which is an array ? I don't, Entity Framework probably doesn't either, so it's not created as a column. In a normalized model, you should have another entity / table to save your "Values" and a one to many relationship with MyModel. — Raphaël Althaus
– Raphaël Althaus, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:32
@RaphaëlAlthaus Yes, its possible, NHibernate. You can also do fancy stuff with it like blobbing JSON. philliphaydon.com/2012/03/… — Phill
– Phill, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:35
@Raphaël Althaus had expected that it got serialized, nothing special... and it's to late to use a different o/r mapper. — MR.ABC
– MR.ABC, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:39
@Phill column type in db is not an array in your example, and we're talking about entity framework. So ? By the way, even if possible, it's a very bad way (normalization, even when using an ORM, is a rather good thing - I think). — Raphaël Althaus
– Raphaël Althaus, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:40
@Abc then don't declare it as an array in your model, just as a string, and make serialization yourself ? — Raphaël Althaus
– Raphaël Althaus, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 11:41

Marek · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-27 10:43:01Z

1

Instead of using an array of strings, you can alternatively use a simple string column with some kind of separator like ';' or '|', anything will do. Just make sure that when you retrieve your data from the database you call the C# String.Split method, passing to it the same separator as parameter.

For example:

string stringToBePersisted = "First Value|Second Value|Third Value";

string[] stringsRetrieved = columnValue.Split('|');

edited Aug 27, 2015 at 10:43

Marek

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answered Sep 21, 2014 at 1:24

Ulysses Alves

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