C# Entity Framework Adding to Many-To-Many Table

Question

Is this a good practice to insert into a many-to-many table?

user = new User
        {
            Id = userId,
            UserName = username,
            FirstName = firstName,
            LastName = lastName,
            UsersBooks = new List<UsersBooks>()
        };

        book = new Book
        {
            Title = "randomTitle2",
            Genre = "randomGenre2",
            UsersBooks = new List<UsersBooks>()
        };

        usersBooks = new UsersBooks
        {
            User = user,
            Book = book
        };

And at last I add it to the context

actContext.UsersBooks.AddAsync(usersBooks);

So I have this UsersBooks collection in each of the classes - user & book. One user can have many books and one book can be acquired by many users(copies of Harry Poter, let's say). So should I every time create a new

usersBook and add it while passing the user and the book each time? Because I see that after that the book is added to it's according table, which is correct. Maybe I am asking if there is a better way in terms of most used by experienced developers

You don't need a UsersBooks class. Check this

vasily.sib
– vasily.sib

2019-02-05 09:49:44 +00:00
Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 9:49 — vasily.sib
– vasily.sib, Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 9:49

AlbertK · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-05 11:47:50Z

3

With EF6 you have two options:

1) Since EF6 supports many-to-many relation out-of-the-box you can go with that feature (that noted in the comment by vasily.sib).

Pros: your models and code look more cleaner without an excess model (UsersBooks)

Cons: it is not flexible way. In the future you may need to add additional properties to the relation table. This approach doesn't allow it

2) Handle many-to-many relation with two one-to-many realtions (like you did)

Pros: you can add any additional properties to this relation. It is a flexible approach

Cons: you code always should work with one more model (UsersBooks)

So, if you handle a simple scenario enough, then you can go with the first approach. Otherwise you need to consider the second.

BTW, currently, EF core doesn't support many-to-many relation

edited Feb 5, 2019 at 11:47

answered Feb 5, 2019 at 10:29

AlbertK

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Comments

baruchiro · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-05 10:27:23Z

1

You don't need to insert directly into the UsersBooks table.

Once you update the users list in book, or the books list in user, the relationship (in UsersBooks) will update automatically.

Actually, you don't need to declare a UsersBooks model for the many-to-many relationship. If you declare ICollection<User> in your Book Code First model, and also declare ICollection<Book> in the User model, the UsersBooks table will create in the database automatically by Entity Framework.

answered Feb 5, 2019 at 10:27

baruchiro

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