quick tips

🔍 Top 5 EF Core LINQ Features You Should Be Using in 2025

Bharath Kumar J C

— 1 min read
🔍 Top 5 EF Core LINQ Features You Should Be Using in 2025
Supercharge your .NET apps with these powerful and modern EF Core LINQ features. From SQL-like pattern matching to bulk updates — these features are essential for clean and performant code. 💪

1️⃣ Use EF.Functions.Like for Smart SQL Pattern Matching 🔡

Use SQL LIKE directly in LINQ for flexible wildcard searches without raw SQL.

var users = db.Users
    .Where(u => EF.Functions.Like(u.Email, "%@gmail.com"))
    .ToList();

2️⃣ Access Dynamic or Shadow Properties with EF.Property<T>() 🎭

Retrieve unmapped or dynamically named column values safely within LINQ.

var result = db.Entries
    .Where(e => EF.Property<string>(e, "Status") == "Approved")
    .ToList();

3️⃣ Debug Smarter with ToQueryString() 🐞

Get the actual SQL query generated by EF Core before executing — great for debugging and performance reviews.

var query = db.Users.Where(u => u.IsActive);
Console.WriteLine(query.ToQueryString());

4️⃣ Update/Delete in Bulk with ExecuteUpdateAsync & ExecuteDeleteAsync ⚡

Perform batch operations directly in SQL without loading entities into memory. (Available in EF Core 7+)

await db.Users
    .Where(u => u.IsInactive)
    .ExecuteDeleteAsync();

5️⃣ Boost Query Speed with GroupBy Translation Improvements 🧠

Group and aggregate data directly in SQL, eliminating slow client-side grouping.

var grouped = await db.Orders
    .GroupBy(o => o.CustomerId)
    .Select(g => new { g.Key, Count = g.Count() })
    .ToListAsync();

🧠 Bonus Tip: Combine Multiple Filters Efficiently with Predicate Logic

Avoid chaining filters that generate nested queries. Combine with cleaner expression logic.

var isRecent = true;
var hasPaid = true;

var orders = db.Orders
    .Where(o => 
        (!isRecent || o.Date > DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-30)) &&
        (!hasPaid || o.Status == "Paid"))
    .ToList();

✅ Final Thoughts

These modern LINQ features not only make your EF Core queries elegant, but they also significantly improve performance. Adopt them into your daily development workflow and build cleaner, faster, and more maintainable codebases.

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✨ Hidden Gems: 2 Powerful but Less Used EF Core LINQ Methods (2025 Update)

✨ Hidden Gems: 2 Powerful but Less Used EF Core LINQ Methods (2025 Update)

Go beyond the basics — Master these underrated EF Core features to write high-performance, production-grade applications! 🚀 1️⃣ ExecuteUpdateAsync() — Bulk Update Without Loading Entities 🛠️ Introduced in EF Core 7 — Perform direct SQL UPDATE operations without fetching entities into memory. 🔹 Usage: await dbContext.Users .Where(u => u.LastLogin < DateTime.UtcNow.AddYears(

By Bharath Kumar J C