Question

I’m using .NET 3.5 and I’m having trouble loading the Entity References automatically. Ideally, and it seems to work sometimes, I would like something like

Dim relocations = ctx.EmployeeRelocations.Where(Function(o) o.Employee.EmployeeNumber = employeeNumber).ToList()
If Not relocations.Where(Function(o) o.ValidTerritory.Territory = territory).Any() Then

where ValidTerritory is a reference type in relocations. But instead, when I try that, I get Object Not set to an instance… for o.ValidTerritory. So, I can do this and everything works fine:

If Not relocations.Where(Function(o)
                             o.ValidTerritoryReference.Load()
                             Return o.ValidTerritory.Territory = territory
                         End Function).Any() Then

In theory, it makes sense what’s happening, but I don’t understand why I need the explicit Load and why this behavior seems to come and go (that is, it sometimes loads the references fine with no explicit load).

Answer 1

Try using Include to get that data:

relocations.Include("ValidTerritory").Where(Function(o) o.ValidTerritory.Territory = territory).Any()