Updated April 4, 2023
Difference Between ADO.Net vs Entity framework
The ADO.Net vs Entity framework is defined as, the ADO.Net stands for ActiveX Data Object which is used to connect relational and non-relational systems, which provides an advantage to create everything from scratch and have full access control of a database in the application, by using it we can get data from ADO.Net in disconnected mode and, whereas, entity framework is an object-relational mapping framework for ADO.Net which is an open-source, that enables developers to work with data in the form of domain-specific objects and it reduces the time of development so that we can easily be focused on production instead of development.
Head to Head Comparison Between ADO.Net vs Entity framework (Infographics)
Below are the top differences between ADO.Net vs Entity framework:
Key Differences
There are some key differences between ADO.net and the entity framework as follows:
- Performance:
The performance of ADO.Net is better than entity framework because ADO.Net is directly connected to the data source due to that it gives better performance than entity framework, whereas the performance of entity framework is less as compared to the ADO.Net as entity translate the LINQ queries to SQL first and then process the query.
The entity framework consisting of the wrapper classes for ADO.Net so with the help of it we can able to do coding faster, entity framework uses ADO.Net in the background.
- Flexibility:
In terms of raw SQL queries and procedures, ADO.Net provides more flexibility than the entity framework as ADO.net provides full control over the database. The LINQ queries are resulting in an efficient SQL query hence the raw SQL queries are useful, raw SQL queries are needful when we cannot want to express it by using LINQ, it returns a regular entity type which is the part of our model.
- Speed of development:
ADO.Net provides complete control over the data layer so that by using scratch developer can create classes and methods and that allows communicating between the application and the database, this process will take more time and more efforts to build the complete structure of the data access layer, whereas, the entity framework generates the models and database context classes automatically so it handles the operations which are performed on the database, this process of performing will take less time and the fewer efforts.
- Code Maintainability:
When we go from the application layer to the database layer to find what is happening in an application this process of debugging is so embarrassing, whereas, the entity framework provides modeled relationships very clearly and their tiers are dependent, the storage model and the mapping can change without changing data classes, conceptual model or application code and data classes.
The maintainable code is the code that is easy to modify or extend we can also say that it is such type of code that is easy to understand and troubleshoot at anomalous conditions within the application we logged in even if they do not have errors.
- Features:
There are some features of ADO.net and the entity framework that are as follows, if we want to have more control over the database for operating SQL commands and operations by fetching queries then the working of ADO.net is great to work with it. The entity framework is a powerful framework that handles the database services that generate the mechanism of basic SQL queries, we can use these both in one project so that the entity framework performs the CRUD operation and the ADO.net performs the reporting and is used to operates the bulk of SQL data operations. Entity framework has three layers that object service layer which is the top layer of the entity framework, entity client layer is the core layer in the entity, and the data provider layer which is directly connected to the database, whereas, the ADO.net can access and modify the data which is stored in the data source like Oracle, MS SQL Server, MYSQL, and XML. It also has classes and data providers that are equivalent to the OLE DB, ODBC, JDBC drivers, etc. It uses two namespaces which are System.dll and System.xml and that support interaction between a client and the database.
Comparison Table
| S.No | ADO.Net | EntityFframework |
| 1. | It provides a bridge between relational and non-relational systems. | Whereas, it is an object-relational mapping framework for ADO.Net which is an enhancement to ADO.Net. |
| 2. | It allows communicating between application and database. | Where it handles the database operations. |
| 3. | It uses the wrapper of entity framework so that by using it the development is faster, hence it gives the fast performance. | Whereas, this is not faster in performance. |
| 4. | It is directly connected to the database. | Whereas, the LINQ queries translate into SQL at first and then it processes the query. |
| 5. | It requires more time and more effort to build a complete structure of the data access layer. | Thus it requires less time and fewer efforts to handle the database operations. |
| 6. | It gives complete control to the data layer so that developers can create classes and methods. | Whereas it automatically creates the model and database, context classes. |
| 7. | In ADO.Net debugging is embarrassing as we go from the application layer to the database layer as it has maintainable code. | Whereas it provides a clear model relationship between entities and dependent tiers. |
| 8. | In ADO.Net, it performs bulk data SQL operations and reporting. | On the other hand, the entity framework performs the CRUD operations in a project.
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| 9. | It is more flexible in terms of raw SQL queries and procedures because it has more control on the database. | Thus, this is not flexible, because it works on LINQ queries that return the entity type. |
| 10. | ADO.Net is easy to modify things than an entity framework. | Whereas, it is complicated to modify things according to our needs. |
Conclusion
In this article, we conclude that the ADO.net and the entity framework has a difference in performance as ADO.net is faster in performance, and we have also seen some key differences between them related to how they are flexible, how data provider work, the maintainable code, and also the speed of development.
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