EFCore.IncludeBuilder

Extension library for Entity Framework Core (6, 7) that tries to improve upon the Include(...).ThenInclude(...) syntax in order to better support the following scenarios:

• Loading multiple entities on the same level (siblings).
• Writing extension methods to include a whole set of entities at once.

Usage - Sibling Data

EFCore.IncludeBuilder allows you to load sibling entities without going up the whole include structure.

UseIncludeBuilder() syntax

dbContext.Users
    .UseIncludeBuilder()
    .Include(u => u.OwnedBlog, builder => builder
        .Include(b => b.Posts.Where(p => p.PostDate > DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-7)), builder => builder
            .Include(p => p.Author)
            .Include(p => p.Readers, builder => builder
                .Include(r => r.ReadHistory)
                .Include(r => r.Posts)
            )
        )
    )
    .Build()

⚠️Caution: Autocomplete after List/Collection Includes is currently broken for VS and VSCode due to a bug in Roslyn. This is tracked by issue #16. Regardless of autocomplete, the code will still fully compile and work.

Include(...).ThenInclude(...) syntax

dbContext.Users
    .Include(u => u.OwnedBlog)
        .ThenInclude(b => b.Posts.Where(p => p.PostDate > DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-7)))
            .ThenInclude(p => p.Readers)
                .ThenInclude(p => p.ReadHistory)
    .Include(u => u.OwnedBlog)
        .ThenInclude(b => b.Posts.Where(p => p.PostDate > DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-7)))
            .ThenInclude(p => p.Author)
    .Include(u => u.OwnedBlog)
        .ThenInclude(b => b.Posts.Where(p => p.PostDate > DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-7)))
            .ThenInclude(p => p.Readers)
                .ThenInclude(p => p.Posts)

Usage - Extension Methods

Since IncludeBuilder uses the same Include(...) method signature for all levels, it is possible to write extension methods without depending on whether the includes are root level Include(...) on IQueryable or nested ThenInclude(...) on IIncludableQueryable.

Extension method

public static TBuilder IncludeBlogChildren<TBase, TBuilder>(this IIncludeBuilder<TBase, Blog, TBuilder> blogBuilder)
    where TBase : class
    where TBuilder : IIncludeBuilder<TBase, Blog, TBuilder>
    {
    return blogBuilder
        .Include(b => b.Author)
        .Include(b => b.Posts, builder => builder
            .Include(p => p.Readers)
        );
    }

Root level extension usage

dbContext.Blogs
    .UseIncludeBuilder()
    .IncludeBlogChildren()
    .Build();

Nested level extension usage

dbContext.Users
    .UseIncludeBuilder()
    .Include(u => u.OwnedBlog, builder => builder
        .IncludeBlogChildren()
        .Include(b => b.Followers)
    )
    .Build();

How It Works

EFCore.IncludeBuilder converts the includes you give it back to Include(...).ThenInclude(...) calls, so it should support all the same providers and functionality as the original.

Performance

UseIncludeBuilder adds very little overhead both time and memory wise:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Ratio	RatioSD	Allocated	Alloc Ratio
Include	30.89 μs	0.572 μs	0.535 μs	1.00	0.00	10.53 KB	1.00
UseIncludeBuilder	33.50 μs	0.163 μs	0.136 μs	1.08	0.02	11.91 KB	1.13

For larger queries that duplicate the same filters, it can even be the faster option:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Ratio	Allocated	Alloc Ratio
Include	69.77 μs	0.140 μs	0.109 μs	1.00	23.8 KB	1.00
Include_DuplicatedFilter	87.86 μs	0.177 μs	0.148 μs	1.26	29.93 KB	1.26
UseIncludeBuilder	78.62 μs	0.213 μs	0.167 μs	1.13	25.34 KB	1.07

You can find the most up to date benchmarks in the build artifacts for each build.