Question

Assume a simple blog-like scenario, where posts are stored both by id and a SEO friendly slug. Is there a way to check that the slug doesn’t already exist during insert? I mean, I could always do something like:

var check = context.Posts.SingleOrDefault(p => p.slug == slug);

if (check != null)
{
    // slug already exists - modify or throw exception
}
else
{
    // save as normal
}

But that seems woefully inelegant to me. I assume there’s a better way, but am unsure of what it would be.

Answer 1

You could just set the UNIQUE CONSTRAINT on the appropriate table in the underlying database.