C# - EntityFramework - DbSet<T>.Find(...) and the inability to use it with Includes (Yes, some of us don't want to use lazy loading for fracksake). Here's one way to make it generic

DomainAbstract.cs

/*
* Tested on EF 5
*/
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Text;

namespace frooky.com.redacted.DataAccessLayer.Domain {
    public abstract class DomainAbstract<EntityType> where EntityType : class {
        private MyEntities _context;

        protected MyEntities Context {
            get { return _context; }
        }

        // must be overriden in inherited classes for primary key lookup (As DbSet<T>.Find
        // does not work with include!! Oh yes, it assumes all your entities have an Int as
        // a primary key - you can make the Pk type generic here if you have different types
        // of primary keys
        protected abstract Expression<Func<EntityType, bool>> primaryKeyPredicate(int pkId);
           

        public DomainAbstract(MyEntities Context) {
            _context = Context;            
        }

        // Find by int Id with includes
        public virtual EntityType read(int id, params string[] includes) {
            var query = ((DbQuery<EntityType>)_context.Set<EntityType>());
            query = includes.Aggregate(query, (q, s) => q.Include(s));
            // return query.FirstOrDefault(primaryKeyPredicate(id));
            return query.SingleOrDefault(primaryKeyPredicate(id));
        }

        public virtual IEnumerable<EntityType> read(params string[] includes) {
            var query = ((DbQuery<EntityType>)_context.Set<EntityType>());
            query = includes.Aggregate(query, (q, s) => q.Include(s));
            return query.ToList();
        }
    }
}

SampleUse.cs

var context = new MyEntities();
context.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;

var functions = new StockManagementMethods(context);

StockItem si = functions.read(456, "StockLocation", "BaseColours", "Recipes.BaseColour")

StockItem.cs

namespace frooky.com.redacted.DataAccessLayer
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    
    // Generated POCO
    public partial class StockItem
    {
        public StockItem()
        {
            this.BaseColours = new HashSet<BaseColour>();
            this.Recipes = new HashSet<Recipe>();
            this.StockMovements = new HashSet<StockMovement>();
        }
    
        public int StockItemId { get; set; }
        public Nullable<int> QuantityOnHandInGrams { get; set; }
        public Nullable<int> StockLocationId { get; set; }
    
        public virtual ICollection<BaseColour> BaseColours { get; set; }
        public virtual ICollection<Recipe> Recipes { get; set; }
        public virtual StockLocation StockLocation { get; set; }
        public virtual ICollection<StockMovement> StockMovements { get; set; }
    }
}

StockManagementMethods.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace frooky.com.redacted.DataAccessLayer.Domain {
    public class StockManagementMethods : DomainAbstract<StockItem> {

        // predicate for specified primary key
        protected override System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<StockItem, bool>> primaryKeyPredicate(int pkId) {
            return (si) => si.StockItemId == pkId;
        }

        public StockManagementMethods(MyEntities Context) : base(Context) {

        }

    }
}