Entity Framework Core, or EF Core, is a library that software developers can use to access databases. There are many ways to build such a library, but EF Core is designed as an object-relational mapper (O/RM). O/RMs work by mapping between two worlds: the relational database, with its own API, and the object-oriented software world of classes and software code. EF Core’s main strength is allowing software developers to write database access code quickly in a language that you may know better than SQL.
EF Core is multiplatform-capable: it can run on Windows, Linux, and Apple. It does this as part of the .NET Core initiative—hence the Core part of the EF Core name. .NET 5 covers the whole range of desktop, web, cloud, mobile, gaming, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI), but this book is focused on EF Core.