Is this LinqToSQL bug ever going to be fixed?

Question

At the risk of repeating other threads, I've just found out that my LinqToSQL database cannot update a non-identity primary key int field in my database.  I'm writing a DotNet 4.0 web app in VS2012.

Deleting a record is not an option since this non-identity field is a cascadable foreign key for a detail table.  

This data structure works fine in the database itself.  Why can't LinqToSQL handle it?  

(To me this shortcoming certainly seems to qualify as a bug.)

Answer 1

SQL tables without primary keys are a bad idea.  I could give you lots of examples of why this is so, but Linq follows that idea and will not generate the code to update/insert/remove table items without a PK. 

All that said I am not sure what you mean "cannot update a non-identity primary key". 

LS

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Lloyd Sheen

Answer 2

The primary key is a must and needed ONLY when you use data visualization layer or ORM such as LinqToSQL.

even if your sql table may not have primary key set, you must set a primary key manually in the Linq diagram, that will enable LinqToSQL to generate the code required for update/insert/delete.

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Blog: http://samir-ibrahim.blogspot.com/

Answer 3

My apologies for not responding sooner.  

I should clarify that my table does have a primary int key.  It's just not an automatically incrementing Identity field.  

However, even though LinqToSql cannot handle this situation automatically, I found out that it was a relatively simple matter to do the update of the key through a stored procedure, which was easily callable through LinqToSQL.  Problem solved.

Of course this is a bit more cumbersome than usual but I don't anticipate having this situation very often.