10 things you didn't know EF Core can do - Hannes Lowette - NDC Oslo 2024

Entity Framework Core supports multiple inheritance strategies:

• Table per Hierarchy (TPH) with discriminator column
• Table per Type (TPT) with separate tables
• Table per Concrete type (TPC)

JSON columns can be used to store complex nested objects instead of normalizing them into separate tables

• Reduces joins and simplifies querying
• Uses OwnsOne() with JSON serialization
• Good for nested DTOs and value objects

HierarchyID support for modeling tree structures in SQL Server

• More efficient than self-referencing foreign keys
• Enables complex tree traversal queries
• Requires SQL Server.HierarchyId package

Many-to-many relationships can be configured without explicitly mapping join tables

• Simplified syntax with skip navigation
• Can control join table naming and structure
• Supports bi-directional navigation

Owned types allow modeling complex types without separate tables

• Can be mapped as JSON or normalized tables
• Supports collections
• Automatically loaded with parent entity

Compiled queries improve performance by caching query plans

• Reduces parsing overhead
• Good for frequently executed queries
• Supports parameterization

Logical/soft deletes can be implemented using shadow properties and global filters

• Records marked as deleted instead of physically removed
• Filtered out automatically from queries
• Configurable through model building

DbContext can be used without DbSet properties

• Model can be built at runtime
• Useful for plugin architectures
• Supports dynamic model configuration

Batch operations reduce database roundtrips

• Multiple operations sent in single transaction
• Configurable batch size (default 42)
• Improves performance for bulk operations