How to map column and entity propery of different datatypes in entity framework code first

Question

I am using Entity Framework 5 - Code first.

I have a database that I am connecting to that already exists for some time now (I did not create it). There is a table

Answer 1

The simplest solution is to use another field that will be mapped to the database field, and the ID property will read/write to this field. Something like this:

public class Customer : IEntity
{
   public decimal CustomerID {get; set;}

   [NotMapped]
   public int Id 
   { 
      get { return (int)CustomerID; }
      set { CustomerID = (int)value; } 
   }

   public string FirstName { get; set; }

   public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Map this new field to the database field, using

this.Property(x => x.CustomerID).HasColumnName("Customer_id");

and the EF will use the customer id field, and your code could happily use the integer id field.