Entity Framework - how do I get the columns?

If anyone is still looking, Here's how I did it. This is an extension method for the DBContext that takes a type and returns physical column names and their properties.

This utilizes object context to get physical columns list, then uses the "PreferredName" metadata property to map each column it its property.

Since it uses object context, it initiates a database connection, so the first run will be slow depending on the complexity of the context.

public static IDictionary<String, PropertyInfo> GetTableColumns(this DbContext ctx, Type entityType)
{
    ObjectContext octx = (ctx as IObjectContextAdapter).ObjectContext;
    EntityType storageEntityType = octx.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.SSpace)
        .Where(x => x.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType).OfType<EntityType>()
        .Single(x => x.Name == entityType.Name);

    var columnNames = storageEntityType.Properties.ToDictionary(x => x.Name,
        y => y.MetadataProperties.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name == "PreferredName")?.Value as string ?? y.Name);

    return storageEntityType.Properties.Select((elm, index) =>
            new {elm.Name, Property = entityType.GetProperty(columnNames[elm.Name])})
        .ToDictionary(x => x.Name, x => x.Property);
}

To use it, just create a helper static class, and add above function; then it's as simple as calling

var tabCols = context.GetTableColumns(typeof(EntityType));

if you want only column names then ,i got the best answer :
var properties = (from t in typeof(YourTableName).GetProperties() select t.Name).ToList(); var name= properties[0];

Got it - I used a linq based reflection query:

IEnumerable<FieldList> properties = from p in typeof(T).GetProperties()
                                    where (from a in p.GetCustomAttributes(false)
                                    where a is EdmScalarPropertyAttribute   
                                    select true).FirstOrDefault()

Sorted! Thanks for the suggestions all.

FYI - I am creating a dynamic where clause using LINQ, dynamic lambda expressions to build e.g. search which will automatically search through all columns by default. But I also needed the column names to verify because I will allow this to be overridden and these calls will be done via javascript ajax post whose input cannot be trusted - so needed to verify the column names.

I used the above to place the results into a custom object with properties called FieldName, FieldType, PrimaryKey. Ta daaa.

Customise it further with

IEnumerable<FieldList> properties = from p in typeof(T).GetProperties()
                                    where (from a in p.GetCustomAttributes(false)
                                    where a is EdmScalarPropertyAttribute
                                    select true).FirstOrDefault()
                                    select new FieldList
                                    {
                                       FieldName = p.Name,
                                       FieldType = p.PropertyType,
                                       FieldPK = p.GetCustomAttributes(false).Where(a => a is EdmScalarPropertyAttribute && ((EdmScalarPropertyAttribute)a).EntityKeyProperty).Count() > 0
                                     };    

If you do not want to use reflection, see answer here. Replace entity name below with your entity name

var cols = from meta in ctx.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace)
                       .Where(m=> m.BuiltInTypeKind==BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
                    from p in (meta as EntityType).Properties
                       .Where(p => p.DeclaringType.Name == "EntityName")
                   select new
                      {
                       PropertyName = p.Name,
                       TypeUsageName = p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name, //type name
                       Documentation = p.Documentation != null ?               
                                       p.Documentation.LongDescription : null //if primary key
        };