This paper describes the ADO.NET Entity Framework, a platform for programming against data that raises the level of abstraction from the logical (relational) level to the conceptual (entity) level, and thereby significantly reduces the impedance mismatch for applications and data services such as reporting, analysis, and replication. The conceptual data model is made real by a runtime that implements an extended relational model (the Entity Data Model aka the EDM), that embraces entities and relationships as first class concepts; a query language for the EDM; a comprehensive mapping engine that translates from the conceptual to the logical (relational) level, and a set of model-driven tools that help create entity-object, object-xml, and entity-xml transformers.
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