Package Manager Console error The type initializer for 'System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.InitialSessionState' threw an exception

Recently I came across the error The type initializer for 'System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.InitialSessionState' threw an exception, when I am trying to open the Package Manager Console.

As per comment form Yishai Galatzer  this is caused by a stack overflow bug in a PowerShell DLL 

Workaround

In your Visual Studio folder, make a backup copy of file devenv.exe.config.

Then, in the original devenv.exe.config file, insert the following after the opening assemblyBinding element(run as admin) and save the file

<!-- WORKAROUND START ->
<dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Management.Automation" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.PowerShell.Security" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Diagnostics" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
    </dependentAssembly>
<!-- WORKAROUND END -->

To Make the changes effect you'll need to restart VS.

Cheers,

Samitha

Azure Tools for DEVs

 Microsoft recently introduced few tools  that can be used in cloud applications 

1. Azure Monitor

2, Microsoft Defender for Cloud

3.Azure AI Foundry

4. Microsoft Dev Box

Cheers,

Samitha

Code analysis with CodeQL

 CodeQL is a set of software tools that work together to perform a specific task or series of tasks.  This includes various tools for tasks such as compiling, linking , debugging, code analysis and Testing.

Read more on CodeQL here.

Cheers,

Samitha

Increase EF Core Efficiency: with Bulk Updates

 ExecuteUpdate was introduced in EF Core 6.0 to improve data manipulation capabilities. 

To demonstrate the use of ExecuteUpdate,  let's consider examples below. 

using (var context = new DbContext())

var items= context.Items.ToList();

foreach (var item in items)

{

    item .Name = "XXX";

    item .LastUpdateDateTime = DateTime.UtcNow;

}

context.SaveChanges();

The first example uses the traditional approach of iterating over a list of items and updating each one.

context.Items.ExecuteUpdate(i => i.SetProperty(p => p.Name, "XXX")

                                 .SetProperty(g => p.LastUpdateDateTime, DateTime.UtcNow))

The second example uses ExecuteUpdate.

When consider a bulk update, EFCore will generate the following query for each line. As a result for 1000 lines, 1000 SQL queries will be executed.

 --Sigle query for bulk updates

UPDATE "Items" AS "i"

SET "LastUpdateDateTime" = rtrim(rtrim(strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%f', 'now'), '0'), '.'),

    "Name" = 'XXX'

 The ExecuteUpdate method translates the update operation into a single SQ query executing without loading entities into memory. This results in significant performance gains, particularly noticeable in large-scale operations.

You can read more about ExecuteUpdate here.

Regards,

Samitha

:

EF Core AsSplitQuery

 AsSplitQuery will perform separate queries instead of complex joins when returning data from multiple tables. 

When using a single query result with data from multiple tables,  there is a probability of   “cartesian explosion” of duplicate data across many columns and rows.

e.g

  var result =dbContext.Student.Where(s=> s.Id == id)

      .Include(x => x.Books)

      .ThenInclude(x => x.Overdues)

      .AsSplitQuery();

Cheers,

Samitha

Assign an empty string if the value is null in Linq

 If you ever wanted to assign an empty string to a value returned from a Linq query, use ?? (null-coalescing operator) to return Empty string in case of null

var qry= from row in context.Table

select new {  FieldValue = (field.Value ?? string.Empty) };

Cheers,

Samitha