Mastering EF Core performance with AsSplitQuery: A game changer for complex queries to avoid database timeouts

Introduction

In the evolving landscape of Entity Framework Core (EF Core), managing data retrieval for complex object graphs is crucial. Developers often face performance issues with multiple related entities. The introduction of AsSplitQuery in EF Core 5.0 has been a breakthrough, offering a new approach to handling complex queries. This article will delve into the functionality of AsSplitQuery, demonstrating its impact on performance with actual SQL examples.

Why I am writing this article:

In this article, I delve into a recurrent issue I’ve encountered: the puzzling message indicating a full database connection pool. This message typically surfaces when an overload of simultaneous requests clogs the system. To tackle this, tools are employed to pinpoint the cause, and monitoring is set up to identify slow queries, as it’s crucial to minimize database query times for efficiency.

Despite implementing several optimizations, such as breaking down bulk queries into smaller batches, the problem persisted. Upon a thorough investigation, I discovered the root cause: my query was retrieving excessive nested data. This led to a single, overly complex SQL…