Question

I’m attempting to create a transaction to wrap around several LINQ to SQL SubmitChanges() calls.

Code

System.Data.Common.DbTransaction trans = null;

using (DbContext context = new DbContext())
{
    context.Connection.Open()
    trans = context.Connection.BeginTransaction();

    context.Transaction = trans; // <-- ERROR HERE: Cannot be done!

    .... // Several calls to delete objects with context.SaveChanges()

    trans.Commit();
}

Problem

In our database schema (which pre-dates me, and is heavily tied into the application), we have a table called Transaction.

This means that the Transaction property in the code above is not actually an IDbTransaction type, and I am unable to assign the trans object to context.Transaction. context.Transaction is actually of type Table<Transaction>.

Question

How can I assign a transaction to my context, given the currently unchangeable fact that I have a table named Transaction?

Although I’m familiar with LINQ to SQL, this is the first time for me using a Transaction around multiple calls, so I’m also ready to accept that I may not be doing this the right way in the first place, and that the conflicting table name may not even be an issue…

Answer 1

If the Transaction property from DataContext is being hidden by your DbContext class, just cast:

((DataContext) context).Transaction = trans;

That way Transaction is resolved by the compiler to DataContext.Transaction instead of DbContext.Transaction.

Alternatively you could use a separate variable, which could be useful if you have several such calls to make:

DataContext vanillaContext = context;
vanillaContext.Transaction = trans;

(I have no idea whether or not this is the right way to use the transaction by the way – it’s just the way to get around your naming collision.)