Return a non-mapped Entity property based on a SUM of child records in the EntityFramework - linq-to-sql

Question

Using an example, I have the following two Entities. The OrderEntity contains a collection of OrderLineEntites
public class OrderEntity
{
public string Reference { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public bool Confirmed { get; set; }
[NotMapped]
public int OrderLineCount { get; set; }
[InverseProperty("Order")]
public virtual ICollection<OrderLineEntity> OrderLineEntity__OrderEntity { get; set; }
}
public class OrderLineEntity
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
Using the following code I can load all the OrderLineEntities for all confirmed orders.
DbSet<OrderEntity> orderEntity.Where(x => x.Confirmed).Include(x => x.OrderLineEntity__OrderEntity)
What I need to do is set the non-mapped OrderLineCount property with the Count of the OrderLine records (to save actually loading them).
So for each loaded Order I have a fully populated Entity including the [NotMapped] property with an empty OrderLine collection.
Advise would be appreciated :)
Thanks

Answer 1

You can do this, but you have to change your approach. You have to manually map the objects yourself:
var query = from a in context.Orders.Where(x => x.Confirmed)
select new OrderEntity
{
Reference = a.Reference,
Description = a.Description,
Confirmed = a.Confirmed,
OrderLineCount = a.OrderLineEntity__OrderEntity.Count
};
return query.ToList();