Exclusive updates on:

PetaPoco: Micro ORM For .NET

by Roopesh Shenoy on Jun 22, 2011 |

PetaPoco is a thin Object Relational Mapper (ORM) for .NET applications. Unlike full-fledged ORMs like NHibernate or Entity Framework, the emphasis is on simplicity of use and performance rather than richness of features. PetaPoco comes in a single C# file, works with strongly typed POCOs, supports class generation with T4 templates and more.

PetaPoco’s most interesting features are

Works with SQL Server, SQL Server CE, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle databases
Helper methods for Insert/Delete/Update/Save and IsNew
Easy Transaction Support
Paged requests automatically work out total record count and fetch a specific page
Parameter replacement Support, can grab named parameters from object properties
Includes a low friction SQL Builder class
Partial Record Updates
Includes T4 Templates to generate POCO classes from database schema

All these features are explained in more detail along with samples in the PetaPoco website.

In terms of performance, PetaPoco is right up there with Dapper, only minimally slower than hand-coded DAL.

There are several tutorials that can help get started – series of blog posts on the official website as well as some independent posts. Besides, since it is open source, it is much easier to add conditions to handle specific scenarios like spatial data.

Micro ORMs have started becoming popular, with many open source projects being released recently. Some of the other well known ones for .NET are Dapper and Massive. These are simpler and more efficient than full-fledged ORMs, often expecting the SQL statement to be hand-written rather than being generated completely dynamically. They also do not need verbose mapping files, that could become tedious to maintain and debug.

Related Editorial

Why NoSQL - Three Trends Disrupting the Database Status Quo

Betfair Chooses not to Gamble with Database Performance: An AppDyanmics Case Study

Everything You Need To Know About Graph Databases – View Introductory Video

Building Content-Driven Apps - Couchbase and Elasticsearch for Content and Metadata Stores

Making the Shift from Relational to NoSQL

Hello stranger!

You need to Register an InfoQ account or to post comments. But there's so much more behind being registered.

Get the most out of the InfoQ experience.

Tell us what you think

Community comments

No xml mapping files by Binoj Antony Posted

No xml mapping files by Binoj Antony

Would have been nice if PetaPoco also supported Xml mapping files(xmldatamapper.codeplex.com/), I hate to specify the attributes in DTO or for that matter in any form of compiled code. Low coupling anyone..