Question

I have several entity classes that I use for parsing fixed width text files as well as utilizing Linq to SQL. I use these classes to parse data from said text files, and compare to data in the database.

One of these entities has a lot of properties, and I don’t want to waste time setting each individual property on the Linq result object.

Is there a way to tell Linq ‘Here’s my object, use this to update the record’? Here’s code I’m working on:

 if (partialContent.MonthlyAddChange == 'A')    {        bookContentTable.InsertOnSubmit(partialContent);    }    else if (partialContent.MonthlyAddChange == 'C')    {        var query = from bookContent in bookContentTable                    where bookContent.EAN == partialContent.EAN                    select bookContent;         if (query != null)        {            // Do something with query.First()        }    } } 

Is it better to delete the record and do an InsertOnSubmit() in this case?

Answer 1

I think the concept of editing a record is different from deleting and inserting a new one. Basically, I think an ORM should abstract away primary key generation and other related stuff. By deleting and inserting, you might be removing the integrity of the record (probably issuing a new primary key, making referenced entities invalid and so forth…). I suggest updating the record whenever the action you are taking is conceptually an update.