How can I generate database tables from C# classes?

Question

Does anyone know a way to auto-generate database tables for a given class? I\'m not looking for an entire persistence layer - I already have a data access solution I\'m usi

Answer 1

@Jonathan Holland

Wow, I think that's the most raw work I've ever seen put into a StackOverflow post. Well done. However, instead of constructing DDL statements as strings, you should definitely use the SQL Server Management Objects classes introduced with SQL 2005.

David Hayden has a post entitled Create Table in SQL Server 2005 Using C# and SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) - Code Generation that walks through how to create a table using SMO. The strongly-typed objects make it a breeze with methods like:

// Create new table, called TestTable
Table newTable = new Table(db, "TestTable");

and

// Create a PK Index for the table
Index index = new Index(newTable, "PK_TestTable");
index.IndexKeyType = IndexKeyType.DriPrimaryKey;

VanOrman, if you're using SQL 2005, definitely make SMO part of your solution.