Index Attribute
Index Attribute
Entity Framework 6 provides the
Index attribute to create an index on a particular column in the database.1
public class Book
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{
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public int Id { get; set; }
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[Index]
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public string Title { get; set; }
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public string Category { get; set; }
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public int AuthorId { get; set; }
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public Author Author { get; set; }
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}
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But in EF Core, indexes cannot be created using data annotations. You have to use the Fluent API to specify an index on a column as shown below.
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protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
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{
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modelBuilder.Entity<Book>()
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.HasIndex(b => b.Title);
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}
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Now in EF Core, the new
Index attribute can be placed on an entity type to specify an index for one or more columns.1
[Index(nameof(Title), IsUnique = true)]
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public class Book
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{
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public int Id { get; set; }
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public string Title { get; set; }
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public string Category { get; set; }
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public int AuthorId { get; set; }
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public Author Author { get; set; }
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}
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Now when you add a migration, you will see that the index is created for the
Title column.1
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Books] (
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[Id] INT IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL,
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[Title] NVARCHAR (450) NULL,
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[Category] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
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[AuthorId] INT NOT NULL,
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CONSTRAINT [PK_Books] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC),
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CONSTRAINT [FK_Books_Authors_AuthorId] FOREIGN KEY ([AuthorId]) REFERENCES [dbo].[Authors] ([Id]) ON DELETE CASCADE
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);
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GO
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CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_Books_AuthorId]
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ON [dbo].[Books]([AuthorId] ASC);
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GO
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CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_Books_Title]
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ON [dbo].[Books]([Title] ASC) WHERE ([Title] IS NOT NULL);
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You can also use the
Index attribute to specify an index spanning multiple columns.1
[Index(nameof(FirstName), nameof(LastName), IsUnique = true)]
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public class Author
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{
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public int Id { get; set; }
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public string FirstName { get; set; }
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public string LastName { get; set; }
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public ICollection<Book> Books { get; set; }
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}
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For SQL Server, Migrations will then generate the following SQL.
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CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Authors] (
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[Id] INT IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL,
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[FirstName] NVARCHAR (450) NULL,
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[LastName] NVARCHAR (450) NULL,
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CONSTRAINT [PK_Authors] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC)
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);
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GO
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CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_Authors_FirstName_LastName]
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ON [dbo].[Authors]([FirstName] ASC, [LastName] ASC)
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WHERE ([FirstName] IS NOT NULL AND [LastName] IS NOT NULL);
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Last modified 5mo ago
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Index Attribute