Option to always prefix table names with schema?
The default behavior when creating a database connection is to prefix table names with the schema only if a conflict occurs--that is, there are two same-named tables in different schemas.
Is there an option to always prefix table names with the schema? This would be beneficial for several reasons:
- The T-SQL convention in queries is to always prefix with the schema when a non-dbo schema exists.
customer.Discounts,vendor.InterestRates,customer.Addresses - Consistently prefixing tables reduces cognitive load.
customer_Discounts,vendor_InterestRates,Addresses<== customer or vendor addresses? - Schemas often provide domain and business context
If I haven't just missed an existing option, from the outside, this seems like a reasonable feature to implement since there's already a condition for prefixing. I'm hoping it would be as easy as "if hasConflict or alwaysPrefix then ..."
Comments
Another reason to allow always prefixing table names is if the source schema changes. This happened to me today. A few tables that previously had conflicts no longer did--or maybe on connection refresh they were chosen as the "primary" table. Either way, my code was broken because the table names had changed from prefixed to non-prefixed.
Understood. I've added this option to LINQPad 8.8.4. It's available in both the LINQ-to-SQL and EF Core drivers. Let me know how you get along.
Outstanding! I'll install the 8.8.4 beta next week and report back within two weeks.
I've been using the latest beta with "always use schemas" checked and so far it's working perfectly. Thank you, this feature has brought another piece of joy to my LINQPad experience!