Chapter 5. Working with Entity Client and Entity SQL
Entity Framework contains a powerful client-side query engine that allows you to execute queries against the conceptual model of data, irrespective of the underlying data store in use. This query engine works with a rich functional language called Entity SQL (or E-SQL for short), a derivative of Transact SQL (T-SQL), that enables you to query entities or a collection of entities.
In this chapter, we will take a look at both Entity Client and E-SQL and learn how to use them in our applications.
We will discuss the following areas:
- An overview of the E-SQL language
- Differences between E-SQL and T-SQL
- When to choose E-SQL over LINQ
- Working with the Entity Client
- Transaction management in Entity Framework
- Deferred loading and eager loading
Before we get started with Entity Client, we should have a proper understanding of E-SQL. This is a T-SQL-like query language used by the Entity Client provider. We will start this chapter with a discussion...
