Property Element (SSDL)
The Property element in store schema definition language (SSDL) represents a column in a table in the underlying database. Property elements are children of EntityType elements, which represent rows in a table. Each Property element defined on an EntityType element represents a column.
A Property element cannot have any child elements.
Applicable Attributes
The following table describes the attributes that can be applied to the Property element.
| Attribute Name | Is Required | Value |
|---|---|---|
Name |
Yes |
The name of the corresponding column. |
Type |
Yes |
The type of the corresponding column. |
Nullable |
No |
True (the default value) or False depending on whether the corresponding column can have a null value. |
DefaultValue |
No |
The default value of the corresponding column. |
MaxLength |
No |
The maximum length of the corresponding column. |
FixedLength |
No |
True or False depending on whether the corresponding column value will be stored as a fixed length string. |
Precision |
No |
The precision of the corresponding column. |
Scale |
No |
The scale of the corresponding column. |
Unicode |
No |
True or False depending on whether the corresponding column value will be stored as a Unicode string. |
Collation |
No |
A string that specifies the collating sequence to be used in the data source. |
StoreGeneratedPattern |
No |
None, Identity (if the corresponding column value is an identity that is generated in the database), or Computed (if the corresponding column value is computed in the database). |
Note
Any number of annotation attributes (custom XML attributes) may be applied to the Property element. However, custom attributes may not belong to any XML namespace that is reserved for SSDL. The fully-qualified names for any two custom attributes cannot be the same.
Example
The following example shows an EntityType element with two child Property elements:
<EntityType Name="Customers">
<Documentation>
<Summary>Summary here.</Summary>
<LongDescription>Long description here.</LongDescription>
</Documentation>
<Key>
<PropertyRef Name="CustomerId" />
</Key>
<Property Name="CustomerId" Type="int" Nullable="false" />
<Property Name="Name" Type="nvarchar(max)" Nullable="false" />
</EntityType>
See Also
Concepts
Entity Framework Overview
SSDL Specification
Other Resources
CSDL, SSDL, and MSL Specifications
ADO.NET Entity Data Model Tools