Entity Framework Core

Overview

Entity Framework Core (EF Core) is Microsoft's official ORM for .NET. It provides LINQ-based querying, change tracking, migrations, and a rich mapping system that translates between C# objects and relational database tables. EF Core supports multiple database providers including SQL Server, PostgreSQL (via Npgsql), SQLite, MySQL (via Pomelo), and Azure Cosmos DB.

EF Core follows the Unit of Work and Repository patterns through DbContext, which tracks entity state changes and generates optimized SQL for inserts, updates, and deletes. The migrations system allows schema evolution to be version-controlled alongside application code.

Install via NuGet: dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer (or the provider for your database).

DbContext and Entity Configuration

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public sealed class AppDbContext : DbContext
{
    public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions<AppDbContext> options) : base(options) { }