DbContext scaffolding creates reference error CS0120 in nameof() for InverseProperty in certain conditions

[janschreier]

when table names in n:m relations meet certain criteria, the below code is created by dbScaffold (DDL statements at the bottom)

namespace ScaffoldError.database
{
    public partial class MA
    {
        public MA()
        {
            MFMA = new HashSet<MFMA>();
        }

        [Key]
        public int MAId { get; set; }
        [StringLength(50)]
        [Unicode(false)]
        public string? Bezeichnung { get; set; }

        [ForeignKey("MAId")]
        [InverseProperty(nameof(database.MFMA.MA))]
        public virtual ICollection<MFMA> MFMA { get; set; }
    }
}

The problem is line [InverseProperty(nameof(MFMA.MA))] which wants to reference the class called MFMA but actually references the next line's Icollection. this creates compiler error CS0120 "An object reference is required for the non-static field, method, or property 'MFMA.MA'"

The solution is to qualify the MFMA like so [InverseProperty(nameof(database.MFMA.MA))]
I could imagine the issue comes from the naming pattern that one table ends with the other tables names but that's just a guess.

Statement used for scaffolding

dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold "data source=localhost;initial catalog=dbname;integrated security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer `--output-dir "database" --table ma --table mfma --table mfmama --data-annotations --use-database-names --force --no-onconfiguring --no-pluralize 

DDL-Statements:

CREATE TABLE dbo.MA (
  MAId INT IDENTITY
 ,Bezeichnung VARCHAR(50) NULL
 ,CONSTRAINT Pk_ma PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (MAId)
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.MFMA (
  MFMAId INT IDENTITY
 ,Bezeichnung VARCHAR(50) NULL
 ,CONSTRAINT pk_mfma PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (MFMAId)
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.MFMAMA (
  MAId INT IDENTITY
 ,MFMAId INT NOT NULL
 ,CONSTRAINT PK_MFMAMA PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (MAId, MFMAId)
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

ALTER TABLE dbo.MFMAMA
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_MFMAMA_MAId FOREIGN KEY (MAId) REFERENCES dbo.MA (MAId)
GO

ALTER TABLE dbo.MFMAMA
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_MFMAMA_MFMAId FOREIGN KEY (MFMAId) REFERENCES dbo.MFMA (MFMAId)
GO

provider and version information

EF Core version: 6.0
Database provider: Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
Target framework: NET 6.0
Operating system:
IDE: (e.g. Visual Studio 20202 current)

[ajcvickers]

Note for triage: regression in 6.0.

5.0 generates:

        [InverseProperty("MA")]
        public virtual ICollection<MFMAMA> MFMAMA { get; set; }

While 6.0 generates:

        [InverseProperty(nameof(MFMA.MA))]
        public virtual ICollection<MFMA> MFMA { get; set; }

[ajcvickers]

Notes from triage:

• For 7.0, we will revert the change to use nameof since it is complex to get all the scoping rules correct.
• We may consider patching this issue based on feedback. For now, the workaround is to manually (e.g. regex search and replace) the scaffolded code.

[janschreier]

I would prefer this as a patch but since this is a compile time issue I think we could live with a workaround for a year if it is too much effort to fix it now

[HakanL]

@ajcvickers I'd love to have this as a patch to 6 since manually patching the generated files (or adding a search/replace process) is cumbersome and error-prone. Nameof is a great feature, but in generated code it's less valuable since you won't refactor generated code (which I understand is why you revert the changes, good).

[ajcvickers]

Note from triage: patch this in 6.0.