Entity Framework 6 Code first Default value

Question

is there "elegant" way to give specific property a default value ?

Maybe by DataAnnotations, something like :

[DefaultValue("true")]
public bool Active { get; set; }

Thank you.

Answer 1

Set the default value for the column in table in MSSQL Server, and in class code add attribute, like this:

[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)]

for the same property.

Answer 2

What I did, I initialized values in the constructor of the entity

Note: DefaultValue attributes won't set the values of your properties automatically, you have to do it yourself

Answer 3

The above answers really helped, but only delivered part of the solution. The major issue is that as soon as you remove the Default value attribute, the constraint on the column in database won't be removed. So previous default value will still stay in the database.

Here is a full solution to the problem, including removal of SQL constraints on attribute removal. I am also re-using .NET Framework's native DefaultValue attribute.

Usage

[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)]
[DefaultValue("getutcdate()")]
public DateTime CreatedOn { get; set; }

For this to work you need to update IdentityModels.cs and Configuration.cs files

IdentityModels.cs file

Add/update this method in your ApplicationDbContext class

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
            base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
            var convention = new AttributeToColumnAnnotationConvention<DefaultValueAttribute, string>("SqlDefaultValue", (p, attributes) => attributes.SingleOrDefault().Value.ToString());
            modelBuilder.Conventions.Add(convention);
}

Configuration.cs file

Update your Configuration class constructor by registering custom Sql generator, like this:

internal sealed class Configuration : DbMigrationsConfiguration<ApplicationDbContext>
{
    public Configuration()
    {
        // DefaultValue Sql Generator
        SetSqlGenerator("System.Data.SqlClient", new DefaultValueSqlServerMigrationSqlGenerator());
    }
}

Next, add custom Sql generator class (you can add it to the Configuration.cs file or a separate file)

internal class DefaultValueSqlServerMigrationSqlGenerator : SqlServerMigrationSqlGenerator
{
    private int dropConstraintCount = 0;

    protected override void Generate(AddColumnOperation addColumnOperation)
    {
        SetAnnotatedColumn(addColumnOperation.Column, addColumnOperation.Table);
        base.Generate(addColumnOperation);
    }

    protected override void Generate(AlterColumnOperation alterColumnOperation)
    {
        SetAnnotatedColumn(alterColumnOperation.Column, alterColumnOperation.Table);
        base.Generate(alterColumnOperation);
    }

    protected override void Generate(CreateTableOperation createTableOperation)
    {
        SetAnnotatedColumns(createTableOperation.Columns, createTableOperation.Name);
        base.Generate(createTableOperation);
    }

    protected override void Generate(AlterTableOperation alterTableOperation)
    {
        SetAnnotatedColumns(alterTableOperation.Columns, alterTableOperation.Name);
        base.Generate(alterTableOperation);
    }

    private void SetAnnotatedColumn(ColumnModel column, string tableName)
    {
        AnnotationValues values;
        if (column.Annotations.TryGetValue("SqlDefaultValue", out values))
        {
            if (values.NewValue == null)
            {
                column.DefaultValueSql = null;
                using (var writer = Writer())
                {
                    // Drop Constraint
                    writer.WriteLine(GetSqlDropConstraintQuery(tableName, column.Name));
                    Statement(writer);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                column.DefaultValueSql = (string)values.NewValue;
            }
        }
    }

    private void SetAnnotatedColumns(IEnumerable<ColumnModel> columns, string tableName)
    {
        foreach (var column in columns)
        {
            SetAnnotatedColumn(column, tableName);
        }
    }

    private string GetSqlDropConstraintQuery(string tableName, string columnName)
    {
        var tableNameSplittedByDot = tableName.Split('.');
        var tableSchema = tableNameSplittedByDot[0];
        var tablePureName = tableNameSplittedByDot[1];

        var str = $@"DECLARE @var{dropConstraintCount} nvarchar(128)
SELECT @var{dropConstraintCount} = name
FROM sys.default_constraints
WHERE parent_object_id = object_id(N'{tableSchema}.[{tablePureName}]')
AND col_name(parent_object_id, parent_column_id) = '{columnName}';
IF @var{dropConstraintCount} IS NOT NULL
    EXECUTE('ALTER TABLE {tableSchema}.[{tablePureName}] DROP CONSTRAINT [' + @var{dropConstraintCount} + ']')";

        dropConstraintCount = dropConstraintCount + 1;
        return str;
    }
}

Answer 4

Just Overload the default constructor of Model class and pass any relevant parameter which you may or may not use. By this you can easily supply default values for attributes. Below is an example.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Aim.Data.Domain
{
    [MetadataType(typeof(LoginModel))]
    public partial class Login
    {       
        public Login(bool status)
        {
            this.CreatedDate = DateTime.Now;
            this.ModifiedDate = DateTime.Now;
            this.Culture = "EN-US";
            this.IsDefaultPassword = status;
            this.IsActive = status;
            this.LoginLogs = new HashSet<LoginLog>();
            this.LoginLogHistories = new HashSet<LoginLogHistory>();
        }


    }

    public class LoginModel
    {

        [Key]
        [ScaffoldColumn(false)] 
        public int Id { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public string LoginCode { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public string Password { get; set; }
        public string LastPassword { get; set; }     
        public int UserGroupId { get; set; }
        public int FalseAttempt { get; set; }
        public bool IsLocked { get; set; }
        public int CreatedBy { get; set; }       
        public System.DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
        public Nullable<int> ModifiedBy { get; set; }      
        public Nullable<System.DateTime> ModifiedDate { get; set; }       
        public string Culture { get; set; }        
        public virtual ICollection<LoginLog> LoginLogs { get; set; }
        public virtual ICollection<LoginLogHistory> LoginLogHistories { get; set; }
    }

}

Answer 5

I found that just using Auto-Property Initializer on entity property is enough to get the job done.

For example:

public class Thing {
    public bool IsBigThing{ get; set; } = false;
}

Answer 6

It's simple! Just annotate with required.

[Required]
public bool MyField { get; set; }

the resultant migration will be:

migrationBuilder.AddColumn<bool>(
name: "MyField",
table: "MyTable",
nullable: false,
defaultValue: false);

If you want true, change the defaultValue to true in the migration before updating the database