Entity Framework same entities

Question

I'm really sorry for this silly question, but I have a problem and no idea, how to solve it. I have a database with a few tables with the same structure. I've used Entity Framework database-first on this database. Now I have a few same entities. For example,

    public partial class Entity1
    {
       public int ID {get;set;}
       public string Name {get;set;}
       public bool Flag {get;set;}
    }

    public partial class Entity2
    {
       public int ID {get;set;}
       public string Name {get;set;}
       public bool Flag {get;set;}
    }

...

I need to use WCF to transport this entities. So i create a datacontract like this entities. And now I want to create specific update method like bellow:

public void update(EntityContract contract)
{
   entity = //some method to get Entity from database by ID
   bool needUpdate = false;
   if(!contract.Name.Equals(entity.Name))
   {
       entity.Name = contract.Name;
       needUpdate = true;
   }
   ... use this codeblock for enother properties
   if(needUpdate)
   {
       //update entity
   }
}

Is there any way to create a one method for all entities with this structure?

Thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

Introduce an interface:

public interface ICommonEntity
{
   int ID {get;set;}
   string Name {get;set;}
   bool Flag {get;set;}
}

Apply it to your entities:

public partial class Entity1 : ICommonEntity {}
public partial class Entity2 : ICommonEntity {}

Make your "some method to get Entity from database by ID" return that interface:

public ICommonEntity GetFromDatabase(...);

Then you only need one method for all entity types.