Code Generation Tool (SqlMetal.exe)

Code Generation Tool (SqlMetal.exe)

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010/.NET Framework 4.0

.NET Framework Tools

Code Generation Tool (SqlMetal.exe)

The SqlMetal command-line tool generates code and mapping for the LINQ to SQL component of the .NET Framework. By applying options that appear later in this topic, you can instruct SqlMetal to perform several different actions that include the following:

From a database, generate source code and mapping attributes or a mapping file.
From a database, generate an intermediate database markup language (.dbml) file for customization.
From a .dbml file, generate code and mapping attributes or a mapping file.

The SQLMetal file is included in the Windows SDK that is installed with Visual Studio. By default, the file is located at drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\vn.nn\bin. If you do not install Visual Studio, you can also get the SQLMetal file by downloading the Windows SDK.

Note:
Developers who use Visual Studio can also use the Object Relational Designer to generate entity classes. The command-line approach scales well for large databases. Because SqlMetal is a command-line tool, you can use it in a build process. For more information, see Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer).

sqlmetal [options] [<input file>]

Options

To view the most current option list, type sqlmetal /? at a command prompt from the installed location.

Connection Options

Option	Description
/server: <name>	Specifies database server name.
/database: <name>	Specifies database catalog on server.
/user: <name>	Specifies logon user id. Default value: Use Windows authentication.
/password: <password>	Specifies logon password. Default value: Use Windows authentication.
/conn: <connection string>	Specifies database connection string. Cannot be used with /server, /database, /user, or /password options. Do not include the file name in the connection string. Instead, add the file name to the command line as the input file. For example, the following line specifies "c:\northwnd.mdf" as the input file: sqlmetal /code:"c:\northwind.cs" /language:csharp "c:\northwnd.mdf".
/timeout: <seconds>	Specifies time-out value when SqlMetal accesses the database. Default value: 0 (that is, no time limit).

Extraction options

Option	Description
/views	Extracts database views.
/functions	Extracts database functions.
/sprocs	Extracts stored procedures.

Output options

Option	Description
/dbml [:file]	Sends output as .dbml. Cannot be used with /map option.
/code [:file]	Sends output as source code. Cannot be used with /dbml option.
/map [:file]	Generates an XML mapping file instead of attributes. Cannot be used with /dbml option.

Miscellaneous

Option	Description
/language: <language>	Specifies source code language. Valid <language>: vb, csharp. Default value: Derived from extension on code file name.
/namespace: <name>	Specifies namespace of the generated code. Default value: no namespace.
/context: <type>	Specifies name of data context class. Default value: Derived from database name.
/entitybase: <type>	Specifies the base class of the entity classes in the generated code. Default value: Entities have no base class.
/pluralize	Automatically pluralizes or singularizes class and member names. This option is available only in the U.S. English version.
/serialization: <option>	Generates serializable classes. Valid <option>: None, Unidirectional. Default value: None. For more information, see Serialization (LINQ to SQL).

Input File

Option	Description
<input file>	Specifies a SQL Server Express .mdf file, a SQL Server Compact 3.5 .sdf file, or a .dbml intermediate file.

Remarks

SqlMetal functionality actually involves two steps:

Extracting the metadata of the database into a .dbml file.
Generating a code output file.
By using the appropriate command-line options, you can produce Visual Basic or C# source code, or you can produce an XML mapping file.

To extract the metadata from an .mdf file, you must specify the name of the .mdf file after all other options.

If no /server is specified, localhost/sqlexpress is assumed.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 throws an exception if one or more of the following conditions are true:

SqlMetal tries to extract a stored procedure that calls itself.
The nesting level of a stored procedure, function, or view exceeds 32.
SqlMetal catches this exception and reports it as a warning.

To specify an input file name, add the name to the command line as the input file. Including the file name in the connection string (using the /conn option) is not supported.

Examples

Generate a .dbml file that includes extracted SQL metadata:

sqlmetal /server:myserver /database:northwind /dbml:mymeta.dbml

Generate a .dbml file that includes extracted SQL metadata from an .mdf file by using SQL Server Express:

sqlmetal /dbml:mymeta.dbml mydbfile.mdf

Generate a .dbml file that includes extracted SQL metadata from SQL Server Express:

sqlmetal /server:.\sqlexpress /dbml:mymeta.dbml /database:northwind

Generate source code from a .dbml metadata file:

sqlmetal /namespace:nwind /code:nwind.cs /language:csharp mymetal.dbml

Generate source code from SQL metadata directly:

sqlmetal /server:myserver /database:northwind /namespace:nwind /code:nwind.cs /language:csharp

Note:
When you use the /pluralize option with the Northwind sample database, note the following behavior. When SqlMetal makes row-type names for tables, the table names are singular. When it makes DataContext properties for tables, the table names are plural. Coincidentally, the tables in the Northwind sample database are already plural. Therefore, you do not see that part working. Although it is common practice to name database tables singular, it is also a common practice in .NET to name collections plural.

Note:

When you use the /pluralize option with the Northwind sample database, note the following behavior. When SqlMetal makes row-type names for tables, the table names are singular. When it makes DataContext properties for tables, the table names are plural. Coincidentally, the tables in the Northwind sample database are already plural. Therefore, you do not see that part working. Although it is common practice to name database tables singular, it is also a common practice in .NET to name collections plural.

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Need the ability to filter stored procs

steve gray | Edit | Show History

I work daily in the Microsoft Dynamics GP database, which has 25,000 stored procs. I have anywhere from 10 to 500 procs that I add to the database.

If I just create a dbml file, it takes over 10 minutes to read through all of them.

It would be nice if the /sprocs switch allowed you to say 'only import sprocs that begin with "sp_" ', or something like that...

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Add the ability to filter views and tables

sspotts | Edit | Show History

I agree with Steve Gray, and would like the capability of a @file for each of the /views /functions etc. switches so we could enumerate just the artifacts we want. Supporting wildcards would be cool within these tiles, too.

Pretty standard pattern.... /sprocs @sprocs.txt

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Filter by schemas too

DocSpoodle | Edit | Show History

We have a large project, and each code namespace and DLL corresponds to a SQL schema. Being able to automate and only pick from certain schema(s) would be nice, in addition to excluding certain tables or procedures that we have defined custom mapping for in separate partial class files.

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Update all and maintain types

Rudsen | Edit | Show History

We're using LING-to-SQL and need the ability to update the schema from the database automatically. When this update is done it should ask if new tables should be imported. It should although maintain changed data types (e.g. wie often change the datatype of a column to an enum) because it's a huge expense to always update the data types to the enums.

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Need more control

Frank Franz | Edit | Show History

Provide a command line switch to specify which tables are code genned.

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: missingfeature (x) sqlmetal (x) Add a tag

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