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ComplexType Class

Represents a complex type in the Entity Data Model (EDM).

Namespace:  System.Data.Metadata.Edm
Assembly:  System.Data.Entity (in System.Data.Entity.dll)

'Declaration
Public Class ComplexType _
	Inherits StructuralType
'Usage
Dim instance As ComplexType

The ComplexType in the Entity Data Model (EDM) represents a type that includes a set of properties like an entity type but does not include a key property. For more information about the complex types in the EDM, see Complex Type and How to: Define a Model with Complex Types (Entity Framework).

The following code sample gets a metadata workspace from the connection and uses that metadata workspace to retrieve information about the properties of the Complex types in the specified model. Note that the metadata workspace is a runtime service component that provides support for retrieving metadata.

The code sample uses a CSpace to specify the model. The CSpace represents the default name for the conceptual model. The code sample uses the CustomerComplexAddr model that is provided in How to: Define a Model with Complex Types (Entity Framework) topic. For an example of the application config file, see Implementing Complex Type (EDM) topic.

Imports System
Imports System.Collections.ObjectModel
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.EntityClient
Imports System.Data.Metadata.Edm

Class GetComplexTypeMembersExample
  Public Shared Sub Main()
    Try
      ' Establish a connection to the underlying data provider by 
      ' using the connection string specified in the config file.
      Using connection As EntityConnection = _
         New EntityConnection("Name=CustomerWComplexAddrEntities")

         ' Open the conection.
         connection.Open()

         ' Access the metadata workspace.
         Dim workspace As MetadataWorkspace = _
            connection.GetMetadataWorkspace

         ' Get properties of complex types.
         GetProperties(workspace, DataSpace.CSpace)
      End Using
    Catch exceptionMetadata As MetadataException
       Console.WriteLine("MetadataException: {0}", _
           exceptionMetadata.Message)
    Catch exceptionMapping As MappingException
       Console.WriteLine("MappingException: {0}", _
           exceptionMapping.Message)
     End Try
  End Sub

  Public Shared Sub GetProperties( _
    ByVal workspace As MetadataWorkspace, ByVal model As DataSpace)

    ' Get a collection of complex types.
    Dim complexTypes As ReadOnlyCollection(Of ComplexType) = _
       workspace.GetItems(Of ComplexType)(model)

    ' Iterate through the collection to get each complex type.
    Dim complexType As ComplexType
    For Each complexType In complexTypes
       Console.WriteLine( _
          ControlChars.Lf & ControlChars.Lf & _
          "***ComplexType Name: {0}, Namespace: {1}", _
          complexType.Name, complexType.NamespaceName)

       Console.WriteLine(ControlChars.Lf & _
          "Get the properties of this ComplexType object ==>")

          ' Iterate through the collection to get each property of the 
          ' current ComplexType object.
          Dim property1 As EdmProperty
          For Each property1 In complexType.Properties
            Console.Write("   Property Name: {0} ", property1.Name)
            Console.WriteLine( _
              "   Property declaring Type: {0}, edmtype: {1}, " + _
              "default: {2}, nullable: {3} ", _
              New Object() {property1.DeclaringType, _
              property1.TypeUsage.EdmType, _
              property1.Default, property1.Nullable})
          Next
        Next
    End Sub
End Class

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5 SP1
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