EF Core SQL Server NodaTime Use NodaTime

When querying, standard operators are supported as well as a range of additional mappings from NodaTime properties/function to their SQL Server equivalents.

To use noda time in your application, first, we need to update our context class by calling the UseNodaTime() method as part of your SqlServer configuration during the UseSqlServer method call as shown below.

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
    optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(@"Data Source=(localdb)\ProjectsV13;Initial Catalog=EmployeeContextDb;",
            x => x.UseNodaTime());
}

Let's add a new model class called Task as shown below.

public class Task
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public Instant StartTime { get; set; }
    public Instant EndTime { get; set; }
    public Duration ScheduledDuration { get; set; }
}

Now define the navigation property Tasks of type ICollection<Task> and also change the type of BirthDate from DateTime to Instant.

public class Employee
{
    public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Instant BirthDate { get; set; }
    public int Salary { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Task> Tasks { get; set; }
}

Let's update the context class by defining a DbSet property for the Task entity.

public class EmployeeContext : DbContext
{
    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    {
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(@"Data Source=(localdb)\ProjectsV13;Initial Catalog=EmployeeContextDb;",
                x => x.UseNodaTime());
    }
    public DbSet<Task> Tasks { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Employee> Employees { get; set; }
}

Now we also need to update the Initialize method, because we have updated the Author entity.

public static void Initialize()
{
    using (EmployeeContext context = new EmployeeContext())
    {
        context.Database.EnsureDeleted();
        context.Database.EnsureCreated();

        var employees = new List<Employee>
        {
            new Employee { Name="Carson Alexander", BirthDate = Instant.FromUtc(1986, 12, 21, 1, 0), Salary = 10000 },
            new Employee { Name="Meredith Alonso", BirthDate = Instant.FromUtc(1975, 10, 1, 1, 0), Salary = 30000 },
            new Employee { Name="Arturo Anand", BirthDate = Instant.FromUtc(1960, 8, 29, 1, 0), Salary = 43000 },
            new Employee { Name="Gytis Barzdukas", BirthDate = Instant.FromUtc(1970, 3, 19, 1, 0), Salary = 40500 },
            new Employee { Name="Yan Li", BirthDate = Instant.FromUtc(1973, 4, 2, 1, 0), Salary = 32000 },
        };

        employees.ForEach(a => context.Employees.Add(a));
        context.SaveChanges();
    }
}

Now execute your application again and you will see the updated database tables which now support the noda time.