Map a Dictionary in Entity Framework Code First Approach

Question

I have a dictionary like this:

/// <summary>
/// Gets the leave entitlement details.
/// </summary>
/// <value>The leave entitlement details.</value>
public Dictionary<string, EmployeeLeaveEntitlement> LeaveEntitlementDetails { get; set; }  

And I want to map it to the database. Is it possible to use a protected or private List<> for that? such as:

/// <summary>
/// Gets the leave entitlement details.
/// </summary>
/// <value>The leave entitlement details.</value>
public Dictionary<string, EmployeeLeaveEntitlement> LeaveEntitlementDetails { get; set; } 

public List<EmployeeLeaveEntitlement> LeveEntitlementStore
{
    get
    {
        List<EmployeeLeaveEntitlement> leaveEntitlements = new List<EmployeeLeaveEntitlement>();

        foreach (KeyValuePair<string, EmployeeLeaveEntitlement> leaveType in LeaveEntitlementDetails)
        {
            leaveEntitlements.Add(leaveType.Value);
        }

        return leaveEntitlements;
    }
    set
    {
        foreach (EmployeeLeaveEntitlement item in value)
        {
            this.LeaveEntitlementDetails.Add(item.LeaveType, item);
        }
    }
}

Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Entity Framework does not presently support mapping a Dictionary natively.

See the following for more information and work-arounds:

Entity Framework 4 POCO with Dictionary

EF Code First - Map Dictionary or custom type as an nvarchar

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adonetefx/thread/a51ba903-2b8b-448e-8677-d140a0b43e89/