How to Update Rows Without Loading Them in EF Core

Need to update many rows in EF Core?

You don't always need to load them first.

Instead of:

var users = await context.Users
    .Where(x => !x.IsActive)
    .ToListAsync();

foreach (var user in users)
{
    user.Status = UserStatus.Disabled;
}

await context.SaveChangesAsync();

You can update matching rows directly:

await context.Users
    .Where(x => !x.IsActive)
    .ExecuteUpdateAsync(setters => setters
        .SetProperty(x => x.Status, UserStatus.Disabled));

How to Update Rows Without Loading Them in EF Core

ExecuteUpdateAsync() is useful when:

You need to update many rows
You don't need the entities in memory
You don't need change tracking
The update can be expressed as a database operation
You want to avoid unnecessary round trips and allocations

The update runs directly in the database.

If you don't need the entities, loading them before updating them is optional.