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C# Dapper

  • CSharp
C# Dapper

C# Dapper is a lightwight ORM. In the world of software development, interacting with databases is a common task. Developers often use Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tools to simplify the process of database operations. Dapper is one such ORM tool. Dapper is a lightweight, open-source library that provides simple and fast database operations. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of using Dapper and create a sample project using it. If you want to skyrocket your C# career, check out our powerful ASP.NET full-stack web development course that also covers test-driven development. You can also learn more about the FluentAssertions library in this post.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following:

  • An IDE of your choice
  • .NET Core 3.1 or later
  • SQL Server

 

Setting the project up

Create a new console project

Install the Dapper NuGet package.

Configuring the database connection

Next, we need to add a connection string to our project to connect to the database. Follow the steps below:

  1. In the “Program.cs” file, add the following using statement at the top:

  1. Add the following code to create a SqlConnection object:

You can replace the entire connection string with yours. By the way, did you know that we offer a unique online course that boosts your C# career? Check it out here!

Creating a table in the database

We will create a simple Employees table in the database for this tutorial. Follow the steps below:

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your database server.
  2. Right-click on the database name and select “New Query”.
  3. Paste the following SQL code in the query window and click “Execute”.

Using Dapper to perform database operations

Now that we have our project set up and our database configured, let’s use Dapper to perform some database operations. We will create a new employee, retrieve a list of all employees, and update an employee’s information using Dapper.

Step 1: Creating The Entity

Create a new Employee class with the following code:

Step 2: Insertion

Add the following using statement at the top of the “Program.cs” file:

To insert a new employee, add the following code to the Program.cs file:

This code creates a new Employee object and inserts it into the Employees table using Dapper’s Query method. The Query method returns the ID of the newly inserted employee.

Step 3: Data Selection

To retrieve a list of all employees, add the following code to the Program.cs file:

This code retrieves all employees from the Employees table using Dapper’s Query method and prints their information to the console.

Step 4: Updating

Add the following code to the Program.cs file to update an employee’s information:

This code updates the employee’s salary with ID 1 using Dapper’s Execute method.

Conclusion

Dapper is a powerful ORM tool that simplifies database operations for C# developers. In this blog post, we created a sample project using Dapper and performed basic database operations. Dapper’s simplicity, flexibility, and performance make it an ideal choice for developers who want to get things done quickly and efficiently. If you haven’t tried Dapper yet, try it and see how it can simplify your database operations. Do you know the differences between IEnumerable and IQueryable? If not, learn them here.

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