Question

When you are writing a linq query that involves two tables/entities for which you have already defined the relationship in your entity framework data model, do you have to define the join in the query or is there a different syntax that uses the already defined relationship?

var q =

    from c in categories

    join p in products on c equals p.Category into ps

    select new { Category = c, Products = ps };

Otherwise what is the point of defining the relationships in the EF model?

Answer 1

If things are set up correctly you’ll have a reference property that represents the foreign key relationship, in which case you should be able to do something like:

var q = from c in categories
        select new {Category = c, Products = c.Products};