How to affect the column order with Entity Framework Code First Migrations

Question

I'm using Entity Framework 4.3 Code First and trying out the Migrations feature.

If I add a new property to my class and then run Add-Migration from the package manager console window I get something like this:

    public override void Up()
    {
        AddColumn("Products", "Discontinued", c => c.Boolean(nullable: false));
    }

I would like to be able to affect the order of the column as I don't want it to just be appended to the table but rather placed at a specific index. I thought I might be able to add it to my modelBuilder configuration, something like:

Property(p => p.Discontinued).HasColumnOrder(2);

but running Update-database does not appear to use it. Can this be done as a migration?

a) There is no way to insert into previous columns without doing a lot of hacking, b) you shouldn't be keeping deprecated data in your database by using "soft-deletes" - look into archiving deprecated data. — Travis J
– Travis J, Commented Mar 27, 2012 at 20:22
What is the point of having columns in database table in specific order? It is just a data storage. — Ladislav Mrnka
– Ladislav Mrnka, Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 7:24
Just for aesthetic purposes, that's all. You can specify it when the database is created with the model builder so just wondered if it's possible when adding a new column as part of a migration. No big deal. — SteveB
– SteveB, Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 8:31
For me, this is a huge issue. I'm setting up a Code First model to match an existing (huge) database. The CF tools don't allow you to enforce an order on the newly-built database, and the Schema Compare tool does not appear to allow you to ignore column order. With hundreds of tables, it will take me days instead of hours. — HiredMind
– HiredMind, Commented Aug 13, 2012 at 22:38

Mark Rotteveel · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-20 11:54:23Z

6

This is just a matter of missing functionality. SQL by itself does not rely on any implicit order of columns (with some exceptions: ORDER BY , ...).

Neither SQL Server nor Oracle have a direct SQL DDL command (aka ALTER TABLE...) to move a column around.

Therefore there's no possibility to change the order without high effort (recreate the table). See for example

edited Feb 20 at 11:54

Mark Rotteveel

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answered Mar 22, 2015 at 23:30

Stephen Reindl

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