Entity Framework - Invalid Column Name '*_ID"

Question

I\'ve narrowed this down to some issue between Code First and Database first EF, but I\'m not sure how to fix it. I\'ll try to be as clear as I can, but I honestly am missin

Answer 1

I also had this problem and it seems like there are a few different causes. For me it was having an id property mistakenly defined as int instead of long in the parent class that contained a navigation object. The id field in the database was defined as bigint which corresponds to long in C#. This didn't cause a compile time error but did cause the same run time error as the OP got:

// Domain model parent object
public class WidgetConfig 
{
    public WidgetConfig(long id, int stateId, long? widgetId)
    {
        Id = id;
        StateId = stateId;
        WidgetId = widgetId;
    }

    private WidgetConfig()
    {
    }

    public long Id { get; set; }

    public int StateId { get; set; }

    // Ensure this type is correct
    public long? WidgetId { get; set; } 

    public virtual Widget Widget { get; set; }
}

// Domain model object
public class Widget
{
    public Widget(long id, string name, string description)
    {
        Id = id;
        Name = name;
        Description = description;
    }

    private Widget()
    {
    }

    public long Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string Description { get; set; }
}

// EF mapping
public class WidgetConfigMap : EntityTypeConfiguration<WidgetConfig>
{
    public WidgetConfigMap()
    {
        HasKey(x => x.Id);
        ToTable(nameof(WidgetConfig));
        Property(x => x.Id).HasColumnName(nameof(WidgetConfig.Id)).HasDatabaseGeneratedOption(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity).IsRequired();
        Property(x => x.StateId).HasColumnName(nameof(WidgetConfig.StateId));
        Property(x => x.WidgetId).HasColumnName(nameof(WidgetConfig.WidgetId));
    }
}   

// Service
public class WidgetsService : ServiceBase, IWidgetsService
{
    private IWidgetsRepository _repository;

    public WidgetsService(IWidgetsRepository repository)
    {
        _repository = repository;
    }

    public List<WidgetConfig> ListWithDetails()
    {
        var list = _repository.ListWithDetails();

        return new WidgetConfigMapping().ConvertModelListToDtoList(list).ToList();
    }
}   

// Repository
public class WidgetsRepository: BaseRepository<WidgetConfig, long>, IWidgetsRepository
{
    public WidgetsRepository(Context context)
        : base(context, id => widget => widget.Id == id)
    {
    }

    public IEnumerable<WidgetConfig> ListWithDetails()
    {
        var widgets = Query
            .Include(x => x.State)
            .Include(x => x.Widget);

        return widgets;
    }
}

Answer 2

If you have foreign key references to the same table more than once, then you can use InverseProperty

Something like this-

[InverseProperty("MyID1")]
public virtual ICollection<MyTable> set1 { get; set; }
[InverseProperty("MyID2")]
public virtual ICollection<MyTable> set2 { get; set; }

Answer 3

For me, it happened because of EF's pluralization issues. For tables that ends with something like "-Status", EF thinks that it's singular is "-Statu". Changing the entity and DB table name to "-StatusTypes" fixed it.

This way, you would not need to rename entity models everytime it gets updated.

Answer 4

For me (using Visual Studio 2017 and the database-first model under Entity Framework 6.1.3), the problem went away after restarting Visual Studio and Rebuilding.

Answer 5

In my case the cause for this problem was a missing FOREIGN KEY constraint on a migrated database. So the existing virtual ICollection was not loaded successfully.

Answer 6

In my case my seed method data was still calling a table column which had been dropped in a previous migration. Double check your mappings if you are using Automapper.