SqlException: Invalid object name 'Products'

Question

I am trying to create a database-first approach ASP.NET Core 6 MVC web app.

I decided to use Microsoft's AdventureWorks sample database for this.

In short, I am trying to get some information from a table called Production.Product .

Here is the code:

Product Class:

 public class Product
 {
    public int ProductID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string ProductNumber { get; set; }
    // More properties.
 }

Context:

public class AppDbContext : DbContext
{
    public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions<AppDbContext> options)
        : base(options)
    {
    }

    public virtual DbSet<Product> Products { get; set; }
}

I add the AppDbContext in the Program class as every developer would, nothing special.

For testing purposes I use the HomeController to get the data.

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private readonly AppDbContext _context;

    public HomeController(AppDbContext context)
    {
        _context = context;
    }

    // I have the view created.
    public IActionResult GetProducts()
    {
        var model = _context.Products.ToList();
        return View(model);
    }
}

And when I go to the GetProducts view, I am greeted with this error:

An unhandled exception occurred while processing the request.

SqlException: Invalid object name 'Products'. Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, bool breakConnection, Action wrapCloseInAction)

I doubled check the connection string. Tried renaming the Product class to Production_Product .

Answer 1

In short, I am trying to get some information from a table called Production.Product.And when I go to the GetProducts view, I am greeted with this error:"SqlException: Invalid object name 'Products'". I doubled check the connection string. Tried renaming the Product class to Production_Product.

Well, based on your description, I have successfully reproduce your issue. As you can see below:

Why the error for:

Generally the exception telling us, AppDbContext property Products doesn't matched with the AdventureWorks database schema or table name. Let have a look on the blow screenshot:

As you can see in the database schema table name consturction followed format Production.Product . Thus, while your entity executing query its searching by DbSet<Product> Products but Product obviously doesn't exists or matched as a result we ended with with the error.

How to resolve:

We can solve the error following couple of ways. Here I am completely agreed with @marc_s . Therefore, I am adding, complete implementations.

Way: 1 Using Entity framework Data Annotation:

If you prefer using data annotations of entity framework so you have to modify your Product class as following:

    [Table("Production.Product")]
    public class Product
    {
       
        public int ProductID { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string ProductNumber { get; set; }
    }

Note: Main point is that, database schema name should be same as your model or class. You can get more details in official document here.

Way: 2 Using Fluent API Validation:

In this scenario you should modify your code same as blow:

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
        {
            modelBuilder.Entity<Product>().ToTable("Production.Product");
           

        }

Full DbContext:

public class AppDbContext : DbContext
    {
        public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions<AppDbContext> options) : base(options)
        {
        }
       
        public DbSet<Product> Products { get; set; }
     

        protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
        {
            modelBuilder.Entity<Product>().ToTable("Production.Product");
           

        }
    }

Note: As said earlier, database table name must be same with the AppDbContext entity name. You can get more details here.

Way: 3 Rename database schema table name:

We even can rename our database table name from Production.Product to Product or we can create new table with name Product . Either way would resolve the issue. Have a look below:

This would also resolve your issue accordingly.

Output:

Note: The takeaways are, your database table name should be matched with your entity model which defined in AppDbContext . On top of that, you could resolve the issue following either way has been described above.