How do I handle Database Connections with Dapper in .NET?

Question

I\'ve been playing with Dapper, but I\'m not sure of the best way to handle the database connection.

Most examples show the connection object being created in the

Answer 1

It was asked about 4 years ago... but anyway, maybe the answer will be useful to someone here:

I do it like this in all the projects. First, I create a base class which contains a few helper methods like this:

public class BaseRepository
{
    protected T QueryFirstOrDefault(string sql, object parameters = null)
    {
        using (var connection = CreateConnection())
        {
            return connection.QueryFirstOrDefault(sql, parameters);
        }
    }

    protected List Query(string sql, object parameters = null)
    {
        using (var connection = CreateConnection())
        {
            return connection.Query(sql, parameters).ToList();
        }
    }

    protected int Execute(string sql, object parameters = null)
    {
        using (var connection = CreateConnection())
        {
            return connection.Execute(sql, parameters);
        }
    }

    // Other Helpers...

    private IDbConnection CreateConnection()
    {
        var connection = new SqlConnection(...);
        // Properly initialize your connection here.
        return connection;
    }
}

And having such a base class I can easily create real repositories without any boilerplate code:

public class AccountsRepository : BaseRepository
{
    public Account GetById(int id)
    {
        return QueryFirstOrDefault("SELECT * FROM Accounts WHERE Id = @Id", new { id });
    }

    public List GetAll()
    {
        return Query("SELECT * FROM Accounts ORDER BY Name");
    }

    // Other methods...
}

So all the code related to Dapper, SqlConnection-s and other database access stuff is located in one place (BaseRepository). All real repositories are clean and simple 1-line methods.

I hope it will help someone.