EF is an Object Relational Mapper (ORM) that supports the development of data-oriented software
applications. With EF, you can take a bunch of database objects like tables and turn them into
.NET objects that you can access in your code. You can then use these objects in queries or use them
directly in data-binding scenarios. EF also enables you to do the reverse: design an object model fi rst
and then let EF create the necessary database structure for you.
Working with EF is pretty easy and quite fl exible. Using a diagram designer, you drag and drop
objects like tables from your database into your Entity model. The database objects you drop on
the diagram become available as .NET objects. For example, if you drop the Review table on the
diagram, you end up with a strongly typed Review class. You can create instances of this class using
LINQ queries and other means, as you see later in this chapter.