Handling Enum in Code First Entity Framework4.1

Hi All,
EF Code first approach has been developing(03-12-2012) and in version 4.1 it does not support mapping enum typed properties to database. You can find a few workarounds for that on the web. Each solution has its pros and cons, and I would like to present one, which is in my opinion easiest (in sense of coding effort) and most extensible.

1st lets create enum;

	using System;
	using System.Collections.Generic;
	using System.Linq;
	using System.Text;
	namespace EntityFrameworkEnum
	{
	public enum LeaveStatus
	{
	Pending,
	Approved,
	Cancelled
	}
	}

view raw LeaveStatus.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Then lets create LeaveStatusWrapper class as follows;

	public class LeaveStatusWrapper
	{
	private LeaveStatus _leaveStatus;
	public LeaveStatus leaveStatus
	{
	get { return _leaveStatus; }
	set { _leaveStatus = value; }
	}
	public string StringValue
	{
	get { return _leaveStatus.ToString(); }
	set { _leaveStatus = (LeaveStatus)Enum.Parse(typeof(LeaveStatus), StringValue, true); }
	}
	public static implicit operator LeaveStatusWrapper(LeaveStatus p)
	{
	return new LeaveStatusWrapper { leaveStatus = p };
	}
	public static implicit operator LeaveStatus(LeaveStatusWrapper pw)
	{
	if (pw == null) return LeaveStatus.Pending;
	else return pw._leaveStatus;
	}
	}

view raw LeaveStatusWrapper.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Lets create Leave class;

	public class Leave
	{
	[Key()]
	public int Id { get; set; }
	public LeaveStatusWrapper LeaveState { get; set; }
	public string LeaveType { get; set; }
	}

view raw Leave.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

then need to define data base context class as;

	public class Context : DbContext
	{
	public DbSet<Leave> Leaves { get; set; }
	protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
	{
	modelBuilder.ComplexType<LeaveStatusWrapper>();
	}
	}

view raw Context.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

We can write a test class for test this scenario as follows;

	[TestClass]
	public class TestEntityFrameworkEnum
	{
	private Context db = new Context();
	[TestMethod]
	public void TestEnum()
	{
	Leave leave = new Leave();
	leave.Id = 1;
	leave.LeaveType = "Casual";
	leave.LeaveState = LeaveStatus.Pending;
	db.Leaves.Add(leave);
	db.SaveChanges();
	Leave testLeave = getLeaveById(leave.Id);
	Assert.AreEqual(leave.LeaveState, testLeave.LeaveState);
	Leave leave2 = new Leave();
	leave2.Id = 2;
	leave2.LeaveType = "Medical";
	leave2.LeaveState = LeaveStatus.Approved;
	db.Leaves.Add(leave2);
	db.SaveChanges();
	Leave testleave2 = getLeaveById(leave2.Id);
	Assert.AreEqual<LeaveStatus>(LeaveStatus.Approved, testleave2.LeaveState);
	}
	private Leave getLeaveById(int id)
	{
	Leave leave =null;
	foreach (Leave item in this.db.Leaves)
	{
	if (item.Id == id)
	{
	leave = item;
	break;
	}
	}
	return leave;
	}
	}

view raw TestEntityFrameworkEnum.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Enjoy !!!