Entity framework, Get orphans child records/records without parents

Question

I have the following exception when saving database context : The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable.

As stated here , this is probably due to missing cascade delete. However, this isn't my code and I do not know which table(s) could contain orphans records. The error message doesn't say so.

Is there a way to retrieve those orphans records. (At least know in which table they are)

Then I will be able to pinpoint which part of the code I need to adjust.

Answer 1

In the Entity Framework when you have relation many to many, and you are trying to delete from an object like parent.Children.Remove(child) this will only detach the child from the middle connection table. So you have to find the child and remove it from DbContext ChildrenToParent entity like so DbContext.ChildrenToParent.Remove(child) . If you give a some code sample and/or database diagram I think I can explain it more precise.

Answer 2

Can you try the following solution? The DeleteOrphans extension method must be called between DetectChanges and SaveChanges methods.

public static class DbContextExtensions
{
    private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary< EntityType, ReadOnlyDictionary< string, NavigationProperty>> s_navPropMappings = new ConcurrentDictionary< EntityType, ReadOnlyDictionary< string, NavigationProperty>>();

    public static void DeleteOrphans( this DbContext source )
    {
        var context = ((IObjectContextAdapter)source).ObjectContext;
        foreach (var entry in context.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Modified))
        {
            var entityType = entry.EntitySet.ElementType as EntityType;
            if (entityType == null)
                continue;

            var navPropMap = s_navPropMappings.GetOrAdd(entityType, CreateNavigationPropertyMap);
            var props = entry.GetModifiedProperties().ToArray();
            foreach (var prop in props)
            {
                NavigationProperty navProp;
                if (!navPropMap.TryGetValue(prop, out navProp))
                    continue;

                var related = entry.RelationshipManager.GetRelatedEnd(navProp.RelationshipType.FullName, navProp.ToEndMember.Name);
                var enumerator = related.GetEnumerator();
                if (enumerator.MoveNext() && enumerator.Current != null)
                    continue;

                entry.Delete();
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    private static ReadOnlyDictionary<string, NavigationProperty> CreateNavigationPropertyMap( EntityType type )
    {
        var result = type.NavigationProperties
            .Where(v => v.FromEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.Many)
            .Where(v => v.ToEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.One || (v.ToEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.ZeroOrOne && v.FromEndMember.GetEntityType() == v.ToEndMember.GetEntityType()))
            .Select(v => new { NavigationProperty = v, DependentProperties = v.GetDependentProperties().Take(2).ToArray() })
            .Where(v => v.DependentProperties.Length == 1)
            .ToDictionary(v => v.DependentProperties[0].Name, v => v.NavigationProperty);

        return new ReadOnlyDictionary<string, NavigationProperty>(result);
    }
}