How to fix the datetime2 out-of-range conversion error using DbContext and SetInitializer?

c# .net entity-framework ef-code-first dbcontext
Alex Angas picture Alex Angas · May 18, 2011 · Viewed 174.6k times · Source

I'm using the DbContext and Code First APIs introduced with Entity Framework 4.1.

The data model uses basic data types such as string and DateTime. The only data annotation I'm using in some cases is [Required], but that's not on any of the DateTime properties. Example:

public virtual DateTime Start { get; set; }

The DbContext subclass is also simple and looks like:

public class EventsContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<Event> Events { get; set; }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        modelBuilder.Entity<Event>().ToTable("Events");
    }
}

The initializer sets dates in the model to sensible values in either this year or next year.

However when I run the initializer, I get this error at context.SaveChanges():

The conversion of a datetime2 data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value. The statement has been terminated.

I don't understand why this is happening at all because everything is so simple. I'm also not sure how to fix it since there is no edmx file to edit.

Any ideas?

Answer

andygjp picture andygjp · May 18, 2011

You have to ensure that Start is greater than or equal to SqlDateTime.MinValue (January 1, 1753) - by default Start equals DateTime.MinValue (January 1, 0001).

Related questions

Using DbContext Set<T>() instead of exposing on the context

Are there any differences when doing the following: public class UsersContext : DbContext { public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; } } versus using the Set<T> method of the context: public class UsersContext : DbContext { } var db = new UsersContext(); var …

Read More
Ignoring a class property in Entity Framework 4.1 Code First

My understanding is that the [NotMapped] attribute is not available until EF 5 which is currently in CTP so we cannot use it in production. How can I mark properties in EF 4.1 to be ignored? UPDATE: I noticed something else strange. …

Read More
Decimal precision and scale in EF Code First

I'm experimenting with this code-first approach, but I'm find out now that a property of type System.Decimal gets mapped to a sql column of type decimal(18, 0). How do I set the precision of the database column?

Read More