How to delay (lazy) load a binary property byte[] in Entity Framework Core 6 - C#

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I have simple table with key, name and binary content. I need to load the binary content only when needed. This used to be extra simple in Linq2Sql, but in EF core 6 I cannot find anything except lazy loading of navigation collection, which is not what I need. Am'I missing something or is this missing in EF core ? Jiri

public class Content {
 public int Id { get; set; }
 public string Name { get; set; }
 public byte[] Data { get; set; } // How to delay loading this ? 
}

Command

ctx.Content.Select(x =x.Id==1);

Expected SQL is:

SELECT Id, Name FROM Content WHERE Id=1
entity-framework-core c#
1 Answers

The only way to optionally load something is to use navigation property.

The solution in your case is fake entity containing just the byte[] property and configured with table splitting to share the same table with the primary entity.

Note that this is just logical separation and does not require DB schema changes. The very first line in the table splitting documentations states:

EF Core allows to map two or more entities to a single row. This is called table splitting or table sharing.

Probably you are confused with the term splitting. It's not splitting the physical table in the database, but splitting (sharing) it between several entities.

e.g.

Model

public class Content
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public ContentData Data { get; set; }
}

public class ContentData
{
    public byte[] Data { get; set; }
}

Configuration

modelBuilder.Entity<ContentData>()
    .ToTable("Content"); // must be the same as for Content entity
modelBuilder.Entity<ContentData>()
    .Property<int>("ContentId");
modelBuilder.Entity<ContentData>()
    .HasKey("ContentId");

modelBuilder.Entity<Content>()
    .HasOne(e => e.ContentData)
    .WithOne()
    .HasForeignKey<ContentData>("ContentId");

Now the Content.Data won't be loaded automatically, and you can use the usual Include to load it when needed. The only drawback is one additional object instance and actual byte[] property accessor - content.Data.Data vs the original content.Data.

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