Is there a better way to update my entities with the Entity framework?

Question

I have not really a \"problem\" but I found the way I develop this code not really well.

I have my countries controller (Edit method) (WebUI layer):

Answer 1

You can call this method in a loop. Then after the loop call context.SaveChanges();

    public void UpdateCountry(Item updateItem)     
    {         
        context.YourDbObjects.Attach(updateItem);

        DbEntityEntry<Item> entry = context.Entry(updateItem);

        entry.State = EntityState.Modified;
    } 

Answer 2

Generally you can update your object without loading it from DB but you have to know its Id.

Your update function can look like:

public void UpdateCountry(Country country)     
{         
  EnsureValidForUpdate(country); 
  _objectContext.Attach(country);

  ObjectStateEntry entry = _objectContext.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntry(country);
  entry.SetModifiedProperty("Name");
  entry.SetModifiedProperty("ISOCode");

  _objectContext.SaveChanges();    
} 

I didn't use your repository and instead I used ObjectContext instance. This code requires that your Country instance has set Id, Name and ISOCode. The update will be done only on Name and ISOCode fields.

But I have to mention that I'm not using this way. Loading entity first is much better approach in EF when you start to work with complex entities and relations.