Question

I am used to using datasets for my projects in terms of data access. I now set myself an easy app to work on in order to learn the entity data framework and how to retrieve & manipulate data.

All the tutorials and samples I have found on the internet are too advanced for me.

Can anyone guide me through on where to start, what are the advantages of this model, In what scenarios should I choose to use entity framework and what are the things (basis) I should now before starting.

My datasets are working fine too. Are there any reasons for me not to stick with that way of accessing data? Or is this something to consider depending on the users of the website (for speed purposes etc.)

Any information – guidance would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance..

Answer 1

The question you’re asking (“When should I use an ORM as opposed to DataSets/hardcoded SQL?”) is a little too broad to be addressed adequately on a Q&A website. However, here are a couple of the high points:

• ORM’s provide safety because they generate classes from the tables in your database (or the other way around, should you choose to go that route) and you perform your in-code interaction on those classes instead of embedding field and table names into your code. This provides you with compile-time safety, ensuring that you don’t fat-finger one of those and discover it hidden deep within the recesses of your application six months after it’s been deployed.
• ORM’s provide a more natural means of accessing related entities (I can do things like ‘customer.Orders’ or ‘order.Customer’ in code) rather than either embedding SQL in a string or accessing everything via stored procedures

And a couple of disadvantages

• In all but the simplest operations, ORM-generated SQL is likely to be slower than hand-crafted SQL or stored procedures. You use an ORM for safety and convenience, not for speed.
• It’s easy to use features like lazy loading (where related entities are loaded on-demand rather than up front) and incur a performance penalty without realizing it.
• In order to take full advantage of an ORM (meaning relations and using it throughout updates, deletions, and inserts), you generally have to bring back an entire object into memory rather than just a portion.