Better error message with ExecuteUpdate

[MizardX]

What problem are you trying to solve?

When executing a ExecuteUpdateAsync and using some navigation property that is not included in the source query, I got a confusing error message.

List<int> deviationIds = [1, 2, 3];
await ctx.RingOperation
	.Where(ro => deviationIds.Contains(ro.Deviation!.ServerKey!.Value))
	.ExecuteUpdateAsync(setters => setters
		.SetProperty(ro => ro.DeviationId, ro => ro.Deviation!.ServerKey)
	);

This throws the exception

ArgumentException: Property 'System.Nullable`1[System.Int32] DeviationId' is not defined for type 'Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.TransparentIdentifierFactory+TransparentIdentifier`2[RingOperation,Deviation]' (Parameter 'property')

I know now that I can rewrite the query into

await ctx.RingOperation
	.Where(ro => deviationIds.Contains(ro.Deviation!.ServerKey!.Value))
	.Select(ro => new { ro, ro.Deviation!.ServerKey })
	.ExecuteUpdateAsync(setters => setters
		.SetProperty(o => o.ro.DeviationId, o => o.ServerKey)
	); 

But from the error message, this is not at all obvious.

Minimal DbContext & Models

public partial class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
	public MyDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> options)
		: base(options)
	{
	}

	public DbSet<Deviation> Deviation { get; set; } = default!;
	public DbSet<RingOperation> RingOperation { get; set; } = default!;

	protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
	{
		modelBuilder.Entity<Deviation>()
			.HasKey(d => d.DeviationID);

		modelBuilder.Entity<RingOperation>()
			.HasKey(ro => ro.RingOperationId);

		modelBuilder.Entity<RingOperation>()
			.HasOne(ro => ro.Deviation)
			.WithMany()
			.HasForeignKey(ro => ro.DeviationId)
			.HasPrincipalKey(d => d.DeviationID);
	}
}

public class Deviation
{
	public int DeviationID { get; set; }
	public int? ServerKey { get; set; }
}

public class RingOperation
{
	public int RingOperationId { get; set; }
	public int? DeviationId { get; set; }
	public Deviation? Deviation { get; set; }
}

Describe the solution you'd like

A better error message explaining that went wrong, and maybe a suggestion of how to fix it.

[Mohammed-Atef2004]

I'd like to work on this issue. Could you please guide me to the relevant part of the codebase where this exception is thrown? I'm a first-time contributor and excited to help.

[roji]

@Mohammed-Atef2004 I'd have to dive into the code in order to know the relevant part of the codebase, at which point there's little point for an external contributor contributing the fix... Try looking at the stack trace and leaning on AI to understand what's going on.