If you’re fluent in SQL and want to display SQL for LINQ to Entities in your .NET application, there are ways to do it. It heavily depends on the version of Entity Framework you’re using
I was looking for a way to display the SQL behind a LINQ to entities query in the immediate window. Lots of sites have some code, except they didn’t seem to work for me ☹.
In Entity Framework version 6.0, you can use the following code. You have to make sure that you don’t have your LINQ query ending with anything that will cause the query to execute, such as .ToList().
((System.Linq.IQueryable) %queryvar%).ToString()
You can use this right in the immediate window. Here is another that I found on the web that didn’t work for me for whatever reason. I think ObjectQuery is not in that library any longer:
((System.Data.Objects.ObjectQuery) %queryvar%).ToTraceString()
If you don’t mind changing your code, there is a way to display the query in the Output windows (after it executes) with this code Added before your SaveChanges().
context.Database.Log = s => System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(s);
For Entity Framework Core, version 6.x, they have added a DebugView property in Visual Studio so that you can inspect the query at a stop point. If you want to get the query in code, you can use this:
string _myQuery = _entityrows.ToQueryString();
Keep on LINQing!
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Author: Jack Yasgar
Jack Yasgar has been developing software for various industries for two decades. Currently, he utilizes C#, JQuery, JavaScript, SQL Server with stored procedures and/or Entity Framework to produce MVC responsive web sites that converse to a service layer utilizing RESTful API in Web API 2.0 or Microsoft WCF web services. The infrastructure can be internal, shared or reside in Azure.
Jack has designed dozens of relational databases that use the proper primary keys and foreign keys to allow for data integrity moving forward.
While working in a Scrum/Agile environment, he is a firm believer that quality software comes from quality planning. Without getting caught up in analysis paralysis, it is still possible to achieve a level of design that allows an agile team to move forward quickly while keeping re-work to a minimum.
Jack believes, “The key to long term software success is adhering to the SOLID design principles. Software written quickly, using wizards and other methods can impress the business sponsor / product owner for a short period of time. Once the honeymoon is over, the product owner will stay enamored when the team can implement changes quickly and fix bugs in minutes, not hours or days.”
Jack has become certified by the Object Management Group as OCUP II (OMG Certified UML Professional) in addition to his certification as a Microsoft Certified Professional. The use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides a visual guide to Use Cases and Activities that can guide the product owner in designing software that meets the end user needs. The software development teams then use the same drawings to create their Unit Tests to make sure that the software meets all those needs.
The QA testing team can use the UML drawings as a guide to produce test cases. Once the software is in production, the UML drawings become a reference for business users and support staff to know what decisions are happening behind the scenes to guide their support efforts.
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