Question

Let’s say you have a class object:

public class Class
{
    IList<Student> students;
}

And you have a student object:

public class Student
{
    private Class class;
}

When loading these objects from the database, what is the best way to load the association?

When you load a class, you will have an empty list of students. If you load students first, you will have a null reference to the class object until the classes are loaded.

Answer 1

When loading these objects from the database, what is the best way to load the association?

If you’re using an ORM, just let the lazy loading feature handle it. Just be aware of the select n + 1 problem.

If you’re not using an ORM, start using an ORM.