Difference between ADO.Net and Entity framework?

Question

Hi, Could you please help me to understand the difference between ADO.Net and Entity framework? I am finding difficulty to explain this in interview. Thank you!!

Vincent Maverick Durano · Answer

Have you tried googling your question? I'm pretty sure there are gazillions of information that you can get from google about it. To give you a quick overview. ADO.NET is a data access mechanism that allows you to execute sql commands to databases using plain sql queries and stored procedures. You would typically use the SQLCommand, SQLDataReader, SQLConnection and SQLDataAdapter objects to perform CRUD operations. Entity Framework (EF) is also a data access mechanism, but it's an Object Relational Mapper (ORM). An ORM enables developers to create data access applications by programming against a conceptual application model instead of programming directly against a relational storage schema. This means that instead of writing SQL queries by yourself, you instead deal with object/classes and use LINQ to query against it. If you are more concered about peformance, then go for ADO.NET implementation with ExecuteNonQuery. Otherwise, if you want to work with conceptual models/classes rather than deailing with hardcoded sql queries, then go for EF. Choice is yours. Keep in mind that EF is built at the top of ADO.NET, so it can't be faster. But it makes development much faster , neat , and improves maintainability of your code.

Puneet Kankar · Answer

1.First time EF loads metadata into memory, that takes a time. It builds in-memory representation of model from edmx file, or from source code if you are using code first. Actually EF is build at the top of ADO.NET, so it can't be faster. But it makes development much faster. And improves maintainability of your code. 2. ADO.NET is much faster than Entityframework. If perfromance is your criteria for you app, use ADO.NET. EF's advantage is to save time and not write bunch of Data layer code.

Sreekanth Reddy · Answer

@sheetal more Both ADO.Net & Entity Frameowrks are features of .NET Framework. ADO.Net : Active X Data Object is used to connect to the databse and fetch the requested results by the general command frames that what we give in Database side. Entity Framework : Unlike to the ADO.Net, entity frameowrk also fetches the data by using the Language Integrated Queries(LINQ). Note: ADO.Net is faster way for accessing when comparing to Entity framework. Thank You.

Ankusha Rana · Answer

The ADO.NET entity is an ORM (object-relational mapping) which creates a higher abstract object model over ADO.NET components. So rather than getting into the dataset, data tables, command, and connection objects as shown in the below code, you work on higher level domain objects like customers, suppliers, etc. DataTable table = adoDs . Tables [ 0 ]; for ( int j = 0 ; j table . Rows . Count ; j ++) { DataRow row = table . Rows [ j ]; // Get the values of the fields string CustomerName = ( string ) row [ "Customername" ]; string CustomerCode = ( string ) row [ "CustomerCode" ]; } Below is the code for Entity Framework in which we are working on higher level domain objects like customer rather than with base level ADO.NET components (like dataset, datareader, command, connection objects, etc.). foreach ( Customer objCust in obj . Customers ) {} The main and the only benefit of EF is it auto-generates code for the Model (middle layer), Data Access Layer, and mapping code, thus reducing a lot of development time.

Tejas Trivedi · Answer

Hi Sheetal, The major difference is Entity framework is ORM (object relational model) which enable us to have same entities in c# data access layer which are there in Database. internally for data access api, it is using ADO.NET apis. The downside of entity framework is it is built on ADO.NET, so bit slower than ADO.NET for first time load, but it is more maintainable than the ADO.NET Hope, you are now clear as far as the major difference is concerned. Don't forget to mark this answser if this helps.

geetha geetha · Answer

ADO.NET: ADO.NETstands for ActiveX Data Object, provides a bridge between relational and non-relational systems. It is a great technology after traditional ADO, which gives an advantage to create everything from scratch and havea full access control of a database in the application. You can get data from ADO.NET in disconnected mode and can serve a large number of connections without compromising on the performance of an application.InADO.NET, you can access and modify data stored in data sources such as Oracle, MS SQL Server, MySQL, and XML. It has a set of classes and data providers that are equivalent to OLE DB, ODBC and JDBC drivers. It mainly uses two namespaces, System.Data.dll and System.Xml.dll that supports the interaction between client and database. Example for fetching data in ADO. Net: namespace sample ADONET { public class UserRepository { public DataSet GetAllUsersList() { DataSet ds = new DataSet(); try { using (SqlConnection sqlConn = SqlConnection ("DataSource=localhost;Initial Catalog=TestDB; User ID=sa;Password=******;")) { //Open connection sqlConn.Open(); string sql = "select * from tblusers"; SqlCommand sqlCmd = new SqlCommand(sql, sqlConn); sqlCmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text; SqlDataAdapter sqlAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(sqlCmd); sqlAdapter.Fill(ds); } } catch (Exception ex) { // Log exception in log file or in database } return ds; } } } Entity Framework : Entity framework is an Object Relational Mapping (ORM) framework that offers an automated mechanism to developers for storing and accessing the data in the database.Entity Framework will execute the relevant query in the database and then materialize results into instances of your domain objects for you to work within your app.ntity Framework can generate the necessary database commands for reading or writing data in the database and execute them for you. Fetching data in Entity Framework: namespace Sample EF { public class UserRepository { public static void Main(string[] args) { using (var userContextDB = new UserContext()) { var user = new User() { UserID = "USER-01" }; userContextDB.User.Add(user); userContextDB.SaveChanges(); } } } }

Ankusha Rana · Answer

ADO.NET entity is an ORM (object relational mapping) which creates a higher abstract object model over ADO.NET components. So rather than getting into dataset, datatables, command, and connection objects as shown in the below code, you work on higher level domain objects like customers, suppliers, etc. EF is built at the top of ADO .net, so it can’t be faster but still, there are some great reasons to use EF over ADO. Net. Faster development :- you don’t need to write a bunch of data layer code. Power of LINQ:- LINQ is really powerful when it comes with EF. Maintainability:- EF reduce code maintainability you don’t need to write big query and SP anymore. A higher level of abstraction:- EF allows isolation of app developers from an underlying data model. Overall:- Use the right tool as per your need, overall it is amazing to use EF with auto compile LINQ queries.

Laxmidhar Sahoo · Answer

The ADO.NET entity is an ORM (object-relational mapping) which creates a higher abstract object model over ADO.NET components. So rather than getting into the dataset, data tables, command, and connection objects as shown in the below code, you work on higher level domain objects like customers, suppliers, etc. ADO.NET Data connections are the oldest of the mentioned technologies with regards to accessing data and simply involves you executing your SQL queries directly against your database, just as you would if you were working within SQL Management Studio. It doesn't "generate" queries for you and as a result provides you with more control over exactly what is being executed and what data you are pull. DataTable table = adoDs.Tables[0]; for (int j = 0; j {DataRow row = table.Rows[j]; // Get the values of the fieldsstring CustomerName = (string)row["Customername"]; string CustomerCode = (string)row["CustomerCode"]; } This has significant advantages if you are a SQL guru, however if you aren't you may find that Entity Framework has a bit friendlier syntax and can generate the queries you need (although they may not be as fast performance-wise). Below is the code for Entity Framework in which we are working on higher level domain objects like customer rather than with base level ADO.NET components (like dataset, datareader, command, connection objects, etc.). foreach (Customer objCust in obj.Customers) {} The main and the only benefit of EF is it auto-generates code for the Model (middle layer), Data Access Layer, and mapping code, thus reducing a lot of development time. LINQ to Entities LINQ to Entities is a version of LINQ that is specifically designed to work with and target elements that are created through Entity Framework (a popular ORM that will generate proper "Entities" based on database tables). It is highly popular especially when the recent gains in popularity of Entity Framework and its widespread use within the .NET environment. One of the major benefits of LINQ to Entities is that it allows developers to write strongly-typed queries to easily target the properties of the entities being queried and storing the values in strongly-typed collections (which are often easier to work with than generic datatables and other collections might be). LINQ to SQL Linq to SQL varies slightly from LINQ to Entities primarily due to the fact that it doesn't deal at all with Entity Framework. Since it doesn't deal with Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL allows you to perform queries on your SQL databases and will generate all of the necessary calls for them as well as translate your queries into objects (although they may not be strongly typed as LINQ to Entities queries are). One of the major benefits of LINQ to SQL is that since it doesn't use any kind of relation-mapping such as Entity Frameworks, it allows you to query the databases directly using LINQ. Comparison Between LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities Syntactically the two are very similar, as you can see from this white-paper article that provides a detailed comparision of the two. Summary Basically, you can think of things this way : ADO.NET - Straight-forward SQL queries that will hit your database and pull data. LINQ to Entities - Uses LINQ to query data-contexts through Entity Framework to generate strongly-typed collections (Entity Framework). More Abstracted. LINQ to SQL - Allows you to use LINQ directly on database content and run queries using the very friendly LINQ syntax as opposed to writing pure SQL.

Farhan Ahmed · Answer

Entity framework is an ORM (object relational mapping) which creates a higher abstract object model over ADO.NET components. So rather than getting into dataset, datatables, command, and connection objects.

Muhammad Imran Ansari · Answer

In addition, You can get the detail insigts of ADO.Net and Entity framework comparison regarding performance, flexibility, speed of development, code maintainability and features. https://www.educba.com/ado-net-vs-entity-framework/ https://www.chubbydeveloper.com/ado-net-vs-entity-framework/

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Here is a bit of history. Microsoft created ODBC in about 1992; I am going by memory, you can check on that. Later they deveolped ADO. It is my memory that most ADO providers intitally used ODBC. ADO was a higher-level interface to databases. ADO existed before .Net. When Microsoft developed .Net they created a .Net version of ADO; of course. An ORM is an even higher-level way to access databases. An ORM abstracts the data and eliminates the necessity of doing lower-level stuff and manages many of the details, such as creating classes for the data. ADO.Net does not generate source code but an ORM like EF does.

Mageshwaran R · Answer

Hi, Can you check with the below link: https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/interview-question/difference-between-adonet-and-entity-framework