Take the 2-minute tour ×

Does linq to sql automatically lazy load associated entities?

I would think it would but I can't find an article stating it as such.

share|improve this question
add comment

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Yes, I believe it does. It also has a "load with" feature/semantic that allows you to batch load several things in a shotgun approach. This is useful when you know you'll need related data along with the main entity right off the bat, like to pre-cache all the data you'll need to render a single Web Page etc.

share|improve this answer
add comment

It depends how you define "lazy-load".

If you say

var person = (from p in db.People 
              where p.PersonId = pid 
              select p).First();
var spouse = person.Spouse;   // based on the SpouseId FK 
                              // back into the People table.

Then that would be precisely "lazying loading" as the second object is not pulled from the database until it is referenced. This however, will require two database queries.

However, if you were to say,

var family = (from p in db.People
              where p.PersonId = pid 
             select new 
                 Name = p.Name, 
                 SpouseName = p.Spouse.Name

Then Linq will automatically do the join and load the information from both records in a single database query.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Yes, lazy loading is enabled by default. Check out this article.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


