Bits of .NET

Entity Framework too heavy for simple queries? Dapper is micro-ORM with near-raw SQL performance.

Install:

dotnet add package Dapper

Basic Usage:

using Dapper;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);

// Query (returns list)
var users = connection.Query(
    "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Age > @MinAge",
    new { MinAge = 18 }
).ToList();

// Single object
var user = connection.QuerySingle(
    "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Id = @Id",
    new { Id = 123 }
);

// Execute (no return)
connection.Execute(
    "UPDATE Users SET Name = @Name WHERE Id = @Id",
    new { Name = "John", Id = 123 }
);

Multi-Mapping (Joins):

var orders = connection.Query(
    @"SELECT o.*, c.* 
       FROM Orders o 
       JOIN Customers c ON o.CustomerId = c.Id",
    (order, customer) => {
        order.Customer = customer;
        return order;
    },
    splitOn: "Id"
);

Performance: 90% of raw SQL speed vs EF’s 60%