Self Reference Model Class - How to populate using Entity Framework

Question

Hi,i have table in SQL Server named Employees as follows:
EmployeeId lastName FirstName reportsTo
1 Davolio Nancy 2
2 Fuller Andrew NULL
3 Leverling Janet 2
4 Peacock Margaret 2
5 Buchanan Steven 2
6 Suyama Michael 5
7 King Robert 5
8 Callahan Laura 2
9 Dodsworth Anne 5
I would like to use Entity Framework to populate my Model Class .My model class looks as follows:
public class Employees
    readonly List<Employees> _children = new List<Employees>();
    public IList<Employees> Children
        get { return _children; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName {get; set;}
I want to use this class in ViewModel  to populate my TreeView control. Can anyone help me in order to define Linq to Entities in order to populate my model class Employees from table in SQL Server as defined. Thanks in advance.
Almir

Answer 1

Hello Fred,
unfortunately it does not work, maybe I can be more specific about what I'm trying to get. I'm following Josh Smith's article on CodeProject related to WFP TreeView
Josh Smith article. He has Class named Person with the following structure
public class Person
readonly List<Person> _children = new List<Person>();
public List<Person> Children
get
return _children;
public string Name { get; set; }
The same is populated from Database class using method named GetFamilyTree() which look as follows:
public static Person GetFamilyTree()
// In a real app this method would access a database.
return new Person
Name = "David Weatherbeam",
Children =
new Person
Name="Alberto Weatherbeam",
Children=
new Person
Name="Zena Hairmonger",
Children=
new Person
Name="Sarah Applifunk",
new Person
Name="Jenny van Machoqueen",
Children=
new Person
Name="Nick van Machoqueen",
new Person
Name="Matilda Porcupinicus",
new Person
Name="Bronco van Machoqueen",
new Person
Name="Komrade Winkleford",
Children=
new Person
Name="Maurice Winkleford",
Children=
new Person
Name="Divinity W. Llamafoot",
new Person
Name="Komrade Winkleford, Jr.",
Children=
new Person
Name="Saratoga Z. Crankentoe",
new Person
Name="Excaliber Winkleford",
I'm trying to figure out how should I write
GetFamilyTree() method using Entity Framework in order to connect to my SQL Server database and populate this Person class as it was populated manually in Joshs Example. The table I'm using in SQL Server is described in
my first post named Employees (it's self reference table)