c# - Entity Framework v5 loading relational data -

i have 2 simple poco want connect through 1 many relation

public class menu {     public int menuid { get; set; }     public bool isactive { get; set; }     public icollection<menumember> menumembers { get; set; } }  public  class menumember {     public int menumemberid { get; set; }     public int menuid { get; set; }     public string  viewroute { get; set; }     public bool isactive{ get; set; } }  public  class efdbcontext : dbcontext {     public dbset<page> pages { get; set; }     public dbset<menu > menus { get; set; }     public dbset<menumember> menumembers{ get; set; } } 

now have simple , resources on internet suprisingly vague (or dumb)

i want write lambda expression for

select *  menu inner join menumembers      on menu.menuid = menumembers.menuid  menu.menuid = 1 

i have used

ienumerable<menu> menu      = repository.menus.where(x => x.menuid == menuid); 

but when iterate on it, menu.menunumbers stays null. believe sort of lazyloading issue.

either include() relation manually eager loading:

entity framework loading related entities:

eager loading process whereby query 1 type of entity loads related entities part of query. eager loading achieved use of include method.

ienumerable<menu> menu = repository.menus                                    .include(m => m.menumembers)                                    .where(x => x.menuid == menuid); 

or mark property virtual entity framework lazy-load it:

lazy loading process whereby entity or collection of entities automatically loaded database first time property referring entity/entities accessed. when using poco entity types, lazy loading achieved creating instances of derived proxy types , overriding virtual properties add loading hook.

public class menu {     public int menuid { get; set; }     public bool isactive { get; set; }     public virtual icollection<menumember> menumembers { get; set; } } 

and there's few other options, sure check out documentation.