Entity Framework - Clear a Child Collection

Question

I have run into an interesting problem with Entity Framework and based on the code I had to use to tackle it I suspect my solution is less than ideal. I have a 1-to-Many rel

Answer 1

Clear() removes the reference to the entity, not the entity itself.

If you intend this to be always the same operation, you could handle AssociationChanged:

Entity.Children.AssociationChanged += 
    new CollectionChangeEventHandler(EntityChildrenChanged);
Entity.Children.Clear();            

    private void EntityChildrenChanged(object sender,
        CollectionChangeEventArgs e)
    {
        // Check for a related reference being removed. 
        if (e.Action == CollectionChangeAction.Remove)
        {
            Context.DeleteObject(e.Element);
        }
    }

You can build this in to your entity using a partial class.