efcore: EF Core 3: "Lambda expression used inside Include is not valid" with inherited entity property

I have similar issue that works in ef core 2.2.6, but it is not working in 3.1.1

//Works in 2.2.6, but in 3.1.1 it throws the same exception as issue title
context.Users
            .Include(n => (object)n.RelatedProp)
            .Where(n => n.Name == "test")
            .ToList();

public class Related
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }
    public class User
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public Related RelatedProp { get; set; }
    }

Same for EF Core 3.1.2

Edit: Solved my problem. The problem was a property that had only a getter and not a setter. I added a private setter and now .ThenInclude works fine.

The Exception thrown: 'System.InvalidOperationException' in Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.dll: 'Lambda expression used inside Include is not valid.' was really confusing

The solution for me was adding the relationship to the modelbuilder.

So for example, my query includes an City.

My Property that i use in my include looks like:

And i define the relationship in the modelbuilder, and that solved the problem with the invalid lambda expression.

It looks like that Entity Framework can’t resolve the relationship at his own, so with the Modelbuilder you define the relations at your own. I know this is a simple example, but this also should work with bigger relationships.

I hope this is the solution for you all!

PS: I don’t use lazy loading, i use eager loading.

• cart
  • items
    • product

query = query.Include(x => x.Items).ThenInclude(y => y.Select(z => z.Prodct));

this ex won’t work, how do this?

@PeterLAxakon - The feature was added in EF Core 5.0. If it is not working on EF Core 5.0 then please file a new issue with repro steps.

When using the name of the property with the same name of your entity, do you have this problem because in EntityFramework Core 3.0 is removed relation of the foreign key by convention. Look this the breaking changes on the new version after 2.2.

https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/ef/core/what-is-new/ef-core-3.0/breaking-changes#the-foreign-key-property-convention-no-longer-matches-same-name-as-the-principal-property

It did not worked out for me, my solution is to concat the results like this:

// fetching results of child class StockBatchProcessingSalesOrderItem
var resultOfStockBatchProcessingSalesOrderItem = this._stockBatchProcessingItemContext.StockBatchProcessingItems
    .OfType<StockBatchProcessingSalesOrderItem>()
    .Where(p => p.BatchId == id)
    .ToList();

// fetching result of main class, seems required for a corrent return type List<StockBatchProcessingItem>
var resultOfStockBatchProcessingItems = this._stockBatchProcessingItemContext.StockBatchProcessingItems
 .Where(p => p.BatchId == id)
 .ToList();

// combine results for subclasses and parent class
return resultOfStockBatchProcessingSalesOrderItem
    .Concat(resultOfStockBatchProcessingItems).ToList();

I know it’s not very elegant, but for me it works for the moment.

@smitpatel I can confirm that both versions provided by @ajcvickers do not work for me. This is currently preventing me from upgrading to 3.0.

There is no doubt that our use cases are more like corner cases. But it is somehow a regression since the aforementioned worked in v2.2. and also it is a feature that I would suspect to be working when inheritance is supported by the Framework.

Include(e => EF.Property<T>(e, propertyInfo.Name)) would be much simpler. (This assumes the navigation name is same as propertyInfo.Name)

or string based include Include(propertyInfo.Name)

@ptsneves - That is not valid include. You cannot use cast on navigation.

@rochapablo Include can only be used with navigation properties configured in the model. [NotMapped] explicitly excludes this property from the model, so Include cannot be used here. This is because without a mapping for the navigation property in the model, EF would not know which related entities to include.

To add to above,

• @domdeger @amacado we never received a repro code. My guess is the property is not mapped as navigation
• @Georgi-Angelov - Include is using convert to object which is not supported and does not provide any value in the query. Remove it and it will work.
• Select inside include is not supported.

Also anyone seeing the same exception, make sure that the navigation you are trying to include is actually mapped in your model.

@rochapablo and others commenting on this issue: can you provide some more details on why you cannot or it is hard to use the form of Include that is supported?

Same problem here. Is there any news about this issue?

@amacado @domdeger - Use 3.1 release. That is latest LTS release out there. If it does not work then share runnable repro code which demonstrate error you are hitting.

@smitpatel i already tried that. Have the same problem as @domdeger that it still not work.

Notes from triage: to clarify (without changing types in the query) this works:

var tmp2 = context.Set<SecurityHistoricalValue>()
    .Include(i => i.Security).ThenInclude(i => (i as ShareClass).SubFund)
    .ToList();        

This does not:

var tmp2 = context.Set<SecurityHistoricalValue>()
    .Include(i => i.Security as ShareClass).ThenInclude(i => i.SubFund)
    .ToList();

We will consider making this work again in a future release.

For me no version does work. I just migrated from EF Core 2.2 to EF Core 3.0. Following code where Values is List ofSectionType causes a similar exception and I did not find a way to make that include work:

var test = await _context.Set<ReportCategory>()
                                          .Include(x => x.Sections)
                                          .ThenInclude(x => (x as ReportSection<SectionType>).Values)
                                          .ToListAsync();

Exception: An unhandled exception has occurred while executing the request. System.InvalidOperationException: Invalid include. at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor.PopulateIncludeTree(IncludeTreeNode includeTreeNode, Expression expression) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor.ProcessInclude(NavigationExpansionExpression source, Expression expression, Boolean thenInclude) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor.VisitMethodCall(MethodCallExpression methodCallExpression) at System.Linq.Expressions.MethodCallExpression.Accept(ExpressionVisitor visitor) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor.ExpandAndReduce(Expression query, Boolean applyInclude) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor.Expand(Expression query) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.QueryTranslationPreprocessor.Process(Expression query) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.QueryCompilationContext.CreateQueryExecutor[TResult](Expression query) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage.Database.CompileQuery[TResult](Expression query, Boolean async) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.QueryCompiler.CompileQueryCore[TResult](IDatabase database, Expression query, IModel model, Boolean async) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.QueryCompiler.<>c__DisplayClass12_01.<ExecuteAsync>b__0() at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.CompiledQueryCache.GetOrAddQueryCore[TFunc](Object cacheKey, Func1 compiler) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.CompiledQueryCache.GetOrAddQuery[TResult](Object cacheKey, Func1 compiler) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.QueryCompiler.ExecuteAsync[TResult](Expression query, CancellationToken cancellationToken) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.EntityQueryProvider.ExecuteAsync[TResult](Expression expression, CancellationToken cancellationToken) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.EntityQueryable1.GetAsyncEnumerator(CancellationToken cancellationToken) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.EntityFrameworkQueryableExtensions.IncludableQueryable2.GetAsyncEnumerator(CancellationToken cancellationToken) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ConfiguredCancelableAsyncEnumerable1.GetAsyncEnumerator() at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.EntityFrameworkQueryableExtensions.ToListAsync[TSource](IQueryable1 source, CancellationToken cancellationToken) at Stego.ReportPortal.Data.Services.Sections.OverdueAccountDataRepository.ListAsync(IUserInformation user, Nullable1 parentId) in C:\git\reportportal.api\Stego.ReportPortal.Data\Services\Sections\Financial\OverdueAccountDataRepository.cs:line 90 at Stego.ReportPortal.Controllers.Report.Sections.OverdueAcountController.Get(Int32 reportId) in C:\git\reportportal.api\Stego.MonthlyReports\Controllers\Report\Sections\OverdueAcountController.cs:line 45 at lambda_method(Closure , Object ) at Microsoft.Extensions.Internal.ObjectMethodExecutorAwaitable.Awaiter.GetResult() at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ActionMethodExecutor.AwaitableObjectResultExecutor.Execute(IActionResultTypeMapper mapper, ObjectMethodExecutor executor, Object controller, Object[] arguments) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeActionMethodAsync>g__Awaited|12_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, ValueTask1 actionResultValueTask) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeNextActionFilterAsync>g__Awaited|10_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Rethrow(ActionExecutedContextSealed context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeInnerFilterAsync>g__Awaited|13_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeNextResourceFilter>g__Awaited|24_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResourceExecutedContextSealed context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeFilterPipelineAsync>g__Awaited|19_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeAsync>g__Logged|17_1(ResourceInvoker invoker) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing.EndpointMiddleware.<Invoke>g__AwaitRequestTask|6_0(Endpoint endpoint, Task requestTask, ILogger logger) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization.AuthorizationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.AuthenticationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context) at Stego.ReportPortal.Common.Filters.ExceptionFilterMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext) in C:\git\reportportal.api\Stego.MonthlyReports\Common\Filters\ExceptionFilterMiddleware.cs:line 24 at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.DeveloperExceptionPageMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)`