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Unexpected Behavior with Entity Framework Core's Include Method in C# .NET 6

👀 Views: 85 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-11
entity-framework-core dotnet-6 include C#

I've hit a wall trying to I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I'm collaborating on a project where Does anyone know how to I'm experiencing unexpected behavior when using the `Include` method with Entity Framework Core in my .NET 6 application. I have a simple model structure where `Order` has a related `Customer` and `OrderItems`. My intention is to eagerly load both the `Customer` and `OrderItems` when querying the `Orders` table. However, when I run the following code: ```csharp var orders = await _context.Orders .Include(o => o.Customer) .Include(o => o.OrderItems) .ToListAsync(); ``` I get the correct list of orders, but the `OrderItems` collection for each order is always empty, even though I know there are related records in the database. I've double-checked that the foreign key relationships are correctly set up, and the data exists in the database. Additionally, I tried using `ThenInclude` since my `Order` entity has a navigation property for `OrderItems`, but it didn't change the outcome: ```csharp var orders = await _context.Orders .Include(o => o.Customer) .Include(o => o.OrderItems) .ThenInclude(oi => oi.Product) .ToListAsync(); ``` In both cases, the `Customer` is populated correctly, but the `OrderItems` remain empty. I suspect it might be related to how the DbContext is configured or perhaps an issue with lazy loading, but I've already disabled lazy loading for this context. I've also verified the database connection string and ensured that it matches the correct database. Is there a specific configuration or setting I might be missing that could cause the `Include` method to not populate the related `OrderItems`? Any insights or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated! I'm working on a web app that needs to handle this. What are your experiences with this? I'm using C# stable in this project. This is my first time working with C# 3.10. How would you solve this? I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning C#.