using hashset in entity framework

Question

I want to know what is the difference between creating classes with or without using "hashset" in constructor.

Using code first approach (4.3) one can creat models like this:

public class Blog
 {
     public int Id { get; set; }
     public string Title { get; set; }
     public string BloggerName { get; set;}
     public virtual ICollection<Post> Posts { get; set; }
  }

public class Post
 {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }
    public string Content { get; set; }
    public int BlogId { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
 }

or can create models like this :

public class Customer
{
    public Customer()
    {
        BrokerageAccounts = new HashSet<BrokerageAccount>();
    }
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public ICollection<BrokerageAccount> BrokerageAccounts { get; set; }
}

public class BrokerageAccount
{

    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string AccountNumber { get; set; }
    public int CustomerId { get; set; }

}

What is hashset doing here?

should i use hashset in the first two models also?

is there any article which shows the application of hashset?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11131617/using-hashset-in-entity-framework

Answer 1

I'm fairly new to Entity Framework but this is my understanding. The collection types can be any type that implements ICollection<T>. In my opinion a HashSet is usually the semantically correct collection type. Most collections should only have one instance of a member (no duplicates) and HashSet best expresses this. I have been writing my classes as shown below and this has worked well so far. Note that the collection is typed as ISet<T> and the setter is private.

public class Customer
{
    public Customer()
    {
        BrokerageAccounts = new HashSet<BrokerageAccount>();
    }
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public ISet<BrokerageAccount> BrokerageAccounts { get; private set; }
}