DBContext class ASP.Net MVC

Question

I'm wondering how Entity framework knows which table to connect to, based on the following code:

    public class Movie
    {
        public int ID { get; set; }
        public string Title { get; set; }
        public DateTime ReleaseDate { get; set; }
        public string Genre { get; set; }
        public decimal Price { get; set; }
    }

    public class MovieDBContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<Movie> Movies { get; set; }
    }

Source

I know that by default it connects to LocalDB. I can specify the database to connect to by adding an entry to Web.config file, like this:

<add name="MovieDBContext" 
   connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDB)\v11.0;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\Movies.mdf;Integrated Security=True" 
   providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" 
/> 

Now, the MovieDBContext class has a Movies property. Can I change its name without breaking anythig, or maybe this name is used by the framework to know which table to query?

What if I didn't add the code above to Web.config file? Would it create a Movies.mdf table automatically based on the name of property?

Answer 1

If you are usign Code First approach you can change name of Movies property. Entity framework uses class name (in this case class Movie ) to figure out table name.

By default it uses the following convention: Make a plural from class name and try to find such table in a database.

Regarding Database name: EF will try to create a database even if there is no connection string, but it will give a different name to it (eg WebApplication1.MovieDBContext ).

Answer 2

If your database has been already crearted using EF it may occur errors. So try to map your newly named class to the table explicitly .