Entity Framework 6: Clone object except ID

Question

In my MVVM program I have a Model class (say MyModel) from which I have an instance of reading from the database (using Entity Framework). When retrieving the o

Answer 1

Lori Peterson has suggested using .AsNoTracking() to perform cloning in EF6. I'm using this method and can confirm that it works. You can even include child objects.

var entity = context.Entities
                    .AsNoTracking()
                    .Include(x => x.ChildEntities)
                    .FirstOrDefault(x => x.EntityId == entityId);

entity.SomeProperty = DateTime.Now;

context.Entities.Add(entity);
context.SaveChanges();

When you are retrieving an entity or entities from a dataset, you can tell Entity Framework not to track any of the changes that you are making to that object and then add that entity as a new entity to the dataset. With using .AsNoTracking, the context doesn’t know anything about the existing entity.