SQL 'time' type in Entity Framework Code First

Escobar5 picture Escobar5 · Aug 29, 2012 · Viewed 26.4k times · Source

I'm trying to create a 'time(7)' column in a table with Entity Framework Code First. This is my Entity:

public class ShiftDetail
{
    public long Id { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public int DayOfWeek { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Column(TypeName="time")]
    public DateTime StartTime { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Column(TypeName = "time")]
    public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }

    public long ShiftId { get; set; }
    public virtual Shift Shift { get; set; }
}

As you can see I'm trying to set the database type for the columns StartTime and EndTime to "time" but I get this error:

(112,12) : error 2019: Member Mapping specified is not valid. The type 'Edm.DateTime[Nullable=False,DefaultValue=,Precision=]' of member 'StartTime' in type 'ShiftDetail' is not compatible with 'SqlServer.time[Nullable=False,DefaultValue=,Precision=7]' of member 'StartTime' in type 'CodeFirstDatabaseSchema.ShiftDetail'.

I've tried also with TypeName="time(7)" but I get this other error:

(104,6) : error 0040: The Type time(7) is not qualified with a namespace or alias. Only primitive types can be used without qualification.

How can I create a time column with code first? (preferably without fluent API)

Thanks in advance.

Answer

Ladislav Mrnka picture Ladislav Mrnka · Aug 29, 2012

If you want to use Time type in database you will have to use TimeSpan with 24 hour cycle in your application. DateTime is not representation of time.