How to get the maximum length of a string from an EDMX model in code?
Here are two methods by which you can read the meta data:
int? GetMaxLength(DbContext context, string tableName, string propertyName)
{
var oc = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext;
return oc.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace).OfType<EntityType>()
.Where(et => et.Name == tableName)
.SelectMany(et => et.Properties.Where(p => p.Name == propertyName))
.Select (p => p.MaxLength)
.FirstOrDefault();
}
int? GetMaxLength<T>(DbContext context, Expression<Func<T, object>> property)
{
var memberExpression = (MemberExpression)property.Body;
string propertyName = memberExpression.Member.Name;
return GetMaxLength(context, typeof(T).Name, propertyName);
}
So you can either enter the table name and property name, or an expression that specifies the property you're interested in.
Another approach could be to create a MetaData class and use the MaxLength
attribute.
It's not very pretty; reading edmx properties at runtime is not something Microsoft exposed easily or documented well (or in some cases, at all). context
is your DBContext.
var objectContext = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext;
var entityType = objectContext.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems<EntityType>(DataSpace.CSpace).Where(e => e.Name == "your entity name").First();
var facets = entityType.Properties["your property name"].TypeUsage.Facets;
facets
will look something like this, so you'll need to look for the MaxLength Name
(may not exist, depending on the underlying field type) and get the Value
:
Count = 5
[0]: Nullable=false
[1]: DefaultValue=null
[2]: MaxLength=250
[3]: Unicode=false
[4]: FixedLength=false