Entity Framework Core in Practice: A Hands-On Guide to Data Access in C#/.NET, from Fundamentals to Performance Tuning (C#/.NET in Practice Book 2)

The tutorial code runs. Then the data grows, and a query you thought fetched one row has quietly fired hundreds of SQL statements — that's the kind of framework EF Core is.

It works, but I'm not sure this is the right way to write it. This book answers that unease by showing you the SQL EF Core actually emits . Instead of listing APIs, it digs into why you write it this way and what happens if you don't.

One example, grown to the end The whole book grows a single inventory and order management system. Nine entities pack in every theme you meet in real work:

- Category and Product (one-to-many), many-to-many with Supplier, one-to-one with CustomerProfile

- Order and OrderItem for the N+1 problem, InventoryTransaction for large-data performance

You build the model in Chapter 4 and reuse it thereafter, so the context never resets from chapter to chapter.

What you'll learn - What an ORM is, how it differs from Dapper and ADO.NET, and when EF Core fits (and doesn't)

- The Fluent API, migrations, and relationship design

- LINQ, Include, change tracking

- The N+1 problem, AsNoTracking, indexes, transactions and concurrency control

- A testing strategy and a troubleshooting Q&A

Who this is for - Developers who know basic C# (classes, properties, intro LINQ, async/await)

- Developers about to work with a database in .NET

- Developers who use EF Core by feel but aren't confident about performance or design

No prior EF Core experience or advanced SQL required (SELECT / JOIN / WHERE is enough).

C#/.NET in Practice series This book is part of the C#/.NET in Practice series. Its companion Building Desktop Apps with C# and WinUI 3 connects this data layer to a real UI. Each volume stands on its own.

The full sample is on GitHub.