ComplexType Class
Represents a complex type in the Entity Data Model (EDM).
Assembly: System.Data.Entity (in System.Data.Entity.dll)
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
System.Data.Metadata.Edm.MetadataItem
System.Data.Metadata.Edm.GlobalItem
System.Data.Metadata.Edm.EdmType
System.Data.Metadata.Edm.StructuralType
System.Data.Metadata.Edm.ComplexType
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.