How to scaffold DbContext with plural DbSet property names in Entity Framework Core?

Question

I use Scaffold-DbContext command in Package Manager Console to create and re-create context and entities for an existed SQL Server database:

Scaffold-DbContext -provider EntityFramework.MicrosoftSqlServer -connection "my connection string"

It works perfectly except one thing: DbSet 's have property names in singular form:

public partial class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
    public virtual DbSet<Request> Request { get; set; }
    public virtual DbSet<RequestHeader> RequestHeader { get; set; }
}

I prefer these names to be in plural form ( Requests etc.). In addition to web search I checked command syntax:

get-Help Scaffold-DbContext -detailed

And found nothing to change this behaviour. Here is my packages.config :

<packages>
  <package id="EntityFramework.Commands" version="7.0.0-rc1-final" targetFramework="net46" />
  <package id="EntityFramework.Core" version="7.0.0-rc1-final" targetFramework="net46" />
  ...
</packages>

How to pluralize DbSet names when scaffolding?

UPDATE 2017-04: DB First scaffolding pluralization is now possible in Entity Framework Core 1.1. Read my answer below for details.

Answer 1

Short Answer

1. Install Package

Install-Package Bricelam.EntityFrameworkCore.Pluralizer

2. Run Scaffold-DbContext Command

Scaffold-DbContext -Connection "Server=<server>;Database=<dbname>;user id=<userid>;password=<pwd>;" -Provider Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -OutputDir Data/EFModels/

---

Long Answer:

As pointed out by @KalinKrastev in the comments of @natemcmaster 's answer. Pluralization in EF Core is possible using a package called Bricelam.EntityFrameworkCore.Pluralizer that can be installed using

in the Package Manager Console (PMC) or

dotnet add package Bricelam.EntityFrameworkCore.Pluralizer

using Dotnet cli.

After installing the package just use the regular Scaffold-DbContext command.

Scaffold-DbContext -Connection "Server=<server>;Database=<dbname>;user id=<userid>;password=<pwd>;" -Provider Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -OutputDir Data/EFModels/ -Force

See More About Bricelam's Pluralizer

Answer 2

You can use this command:

Scaffold-DbContext "connectionString" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -o Models -UseDatabaseNames -NoPluralize -force

You have nuget package before:

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design - version 5
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore - version 5
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -version 5
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools - version 5
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational -version 5

Answer 3

Update for EntityFrameworkCore 5.0 : TableNames are now automatically pluralized upon scaffolding. (At least with -Provider Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer)

Answer 4

Pluralization is possible in EF Core 1.1. As Rowan Miller described in its blog , you need to install the Inflector and implement IDesignTimeServices to control pluralization when scaffolding. However, be aware of it:

We put these services into *.internal namespaces and reserve the right to break the APIs at any point.

So this is why a full code example is not copied to here. This answer is not accepted for the same reason - I prefer to wait until we get a stable API.

Another issue you should consider - this solution is provider-dependent. It works fine with SQL Server (I tested it). Another DBMS provider may not support this API yet. For example, latestNpgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL 1.1.0 fails on scaffold when custom IDesignTimeServices is used.

Answer 5

Pluralization is not supported in EF7 as of RC1. This and other limitations of EF7 scaffolding are being tracked here: https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework/issues/4038

Answer 6

I may be late to the party, but after an upgrade from .net core 3.1 to .net 6, when I used the following command: dbcontext scaffold "Server=(local);Database=XXXXXX;Trusted_Connection=True;" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -o Models\Entities -c DBContext -f --verbose --no-onconfiguring --startup-project../XXXX^ it duplicated my entities by generating the singluar form of them. Up until the upgrade de command was giving me the name from the database of the entities so it was not adding the duplicated singular form. I found that using the --no-pluralize option kept the command from generating another entity with singular form. I know they added a default pluralizer in.net core 5, but I have no ideea why this worked in preventing the singularization. So Cris Loli's aswer seems to solve my issue. Hope this helps someone solve their issues.