Exception when doing a Contains query against an enum field based on byte

[redoz]

We just upgraded to EFCore 3.1 which surfaced this issue.

Minimal reproduction:

Repro.csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="3.1.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="3.1.0">
      <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
      <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
    </PackageReference>
    <PackageReference Include="Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL" Version="3.1.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Program.cs

using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace Repro
{
    class Program
    {
        static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
            await using var dbContext = new MyContext();

            SomeEnum[] possibleValues = { SomeEnum.One, SomeEnum.Three };
            var result = await dbContext.My.Where(e => possibleValues.Contains(e.SomeByteValue)).ToListAsync();
        }
    }

    public enum SomeEnum : byte
    {
        One = 1,
        Two = 2,
        Three = 3
    }

    public class MyEntity
    {
        [Key]
        [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.None)]
        public int TheKey { get; set; }
        public SomeEnum SomeByteValue { get; set; }
    }

    public class MyContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<MyEntity> My { get; set; }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
        {
            optionsBuilder.UseNpgsql(@"Server=.");
        }
    }
}

This line:

var result = await dbContext.My.Where(e => possibleValues.Contains(e.SomeByteValue)).ToListAsync();

throws the following exception:

System.InvalidCastException: 'Unable to cast object of type 'Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Storage.Internal.Mapping.NpgsqlByteArrayTypeMapping' to type 'Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Storage.Internal.Mapping.NpgsqlArrayTypeMapping'.'

Stacktrace:

This exception was originally thrown at this call stack:
	Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.Internal.NpgsqlSqlExpressionFactory.ApplyTypeMappingOnArrayAnyAll(Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.Expressions.Internal.ArrayAnyAllExpression)
	Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.Internal.NpgsqlSqlExpressionFactory.ApplyTypeMapping(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression, Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage.RelationalTypeMapping)
	Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressionFactory.ApplyDefaultTypeMapping(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression)
	Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.Internal.NpgsqlSqlExpressionFactory.ArrayAnyAll(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression, Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression, Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.Expressions.Internal.ArrayComparisonType, string)
	Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL.Query.ExpressionTranslators.Internal.NpgsqlArrayMethodTranslator.Translate(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression, System.Reflection.MethodInfo, System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyList<Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression>)
	Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.RelationalMethodCallTranslatorProvider.Translate.AnonymousMethod__1(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.IMethodCallTranslator)
	System.Linq.Enumerable.SelectEnumerableIterator<TSource, TResult>.MoveNext()
	System.Linq.Enumerable.TryGetFirst<TSource>(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<TSource>, System.Func<TSource, bool>, out bool)
	System.Linq.Enumerable.FirstOrDefault<TSource>(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<TSource>, System.Func<TSource, bool>)
	Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.RelationalMethodCallTranslatorProvider.Translate(Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata.IModel, Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression, System.Reflection.MethodInfo, System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyList<Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.SqlExpressions.SqlExpression>)
    ...
    [Call Stack Truncated]

[roji]

There's some difficulty around byte arrays, since they can map to both PostgreSQL bytea (special type for a BLOB) and to smallint[] (array of smallints). As a workaround I'd recommend simply changing the enum's type to short - PostgreSQL doesn't actually have a byte type, so your byte enum is getting mapped to smallint in any case (or just the default C# enum type, int). Another option could be to map to PostgreSQL enums instead of smallint/int - if this works for you, it would probably be the cleanest solution.

Note: this can be reproduced without enums:

var bytes = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };
var result = await dbContext.My.Where(e => bytes.Contains(e.RealByte)).ToListAsync();

[redoz]

@roji If we were willing to try to create a PR for this, any suggestions where we should start looking?

[roji]

This would basically be an implementation of dotnet/efcore#4601 (already done for SQL Server and Sqlite) for the Npgsql provider. We'd translate Contains over byte arrays in a specific way (by using PostgreSQL position) before the general array logic kicks in. Following what was done for the other providers, we'd add an NpgsqlByteArrayMethodTranslator where that translation would take place.

Good luck and let me know if you need any more guidance! If you end up not having time, please post a note here so I know to take care of it myself.

[HenriKoelewijn]

A quick workaround is to provide an IList of T i.s.o. a T[] in the where clause:

IList<Status> list = new []{ Status.Enabled, Status.Disabled };
dbContext.My.Where(e => list.Contains(e.SomeByteValue))

[roji]

Good idea!

[redoz]

@roji As we have an easy workaround for now I think we won't pick this one up, I suspect you'll be able to get this done way faster than we will anyway :)

I appreciate the pointers though, if our workload was a bit lighter we could spend some time investigating getting a real fix done.

[roji]

Sure thing, no problem!

[roji]

Changing milestone to 5.0.0 as the fix isn't trivial and there's a good workaround.

[freerider7777]

I have the same issue... Is it fixed only in .Net 5? Workaround with "short" does not work.
List works, thanks, but many changes in code are needed...
Update: with short the exception is in other place :)

[roji]

@freerider7777 this issue is fixed only in EF Core 5.0 (as indicated by the milestone).

If you're seeing other exceptions when using EF Core 5.0 (e.g. with short), can you please open a new issue for that with a code sample?