Entity-framework – Entity Framework and SQL Server View

.net-3.5entity-frameworkprimary-keysql-server-2005sql-view

For several reasons that I don't have the liberty to talk about, we are defining a view on our Sql Server 2005 database like so:

CREATE VIEW [dbo].[MeterProvingStatisticsPoint]
AS
SELECT
    CAST(0 AS BIGINT) AS 'RowNumber',
    CAST(0 AS BIGINT) AS 'ProverTicketId',
    CAST(0 AS INT) AS 'ReportNumber',
    GETDATE() AS 'CompletedDateTime',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'MeterFactor',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'Density',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'FlowRate',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'Average',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'StandardDeviation',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'MeanPlus2XStandardDeviation',
    CAST(1.1 AS float) AS 'MeanMinus2XStandardDeviation'
WHERE 0 = 1

The idea is that the Entity Framework will create an entity based on this query, which it does, but it generates it with an error that states the following:

Warning 6002: The table/view 'Keystone_Local.dbo.MeterProvingStatisticsPoint' does not have a primary key defined. The key has been inferred and the definition was created as a read-only table/view.

And it decides that the CompletedDateTime field will be this entity primary key.

We are using EdmGen to generate the model. Is there a way not to have the entity framework include any field of this view as a primary key?

Best Answer

We had the same problem and this is the solution:

To force entity framework to use a column as a primary key, use ISNULL.

To force entity framework not to use a column as a primary key, use NULLIF.

An easy way to apply this is to wrap the select statement of your view in another select.

Example:

SELECT
  ISNULL(MyPrimaryID,-999) MyPrimaryID,
  NULLIF(AnotherProperty,'') AnotherProperty
  FROM ( ... ) AS temp
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