The other day I was trying to map a class to some other class, nothing unusual – especially when we use AutoMapper for that task. However the error I got was really unexpected:

System.NotSupportedException

Only parameterless constructors and initializers are supported in LINQ to Entities. 

Here is how my classes looked like:

// mapping source class
public class Attribute
{
  [Required]
  public long Id { get; set; }

  [Required]
  public string Name { get; set; }

  [Required]
  public string Value { get; set; }
}

// mapping destination class
public class NameValuePair
{
  public NameValuePair()
  {
    // parameterless constructor
  }

  public NameValuePair(object name, object value)
  {
    Name = name;
    Value = value;
  }

  public object Name { get; set; }

  public object Value { get; set; }
}

// mapping profile
CreateMap<Attribute, NameValuePair>();

What happened? The error occurred when I tried to convert my Attribute to a NameValuePair in an IQueryable call with ProjectTo(). And the stack trace showed the exception was NOT coming from AutoMapper, but directly from LINQ:

at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MemberInitTranslator.TypedTranslate(ExpressionConverter parent, MemberInitExpression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TypedTranslator`1.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateExpression(Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateLambda(LambdaExpression lambda, DbExpression input)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateLambda(LambdaExpression lambda, DbExpression input, DbExpressionBinding& binding)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.OneLambdaTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call, DbExpression& source, DbExpressionBinding& sourceBinding, DbExpression& lambda)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.SelectTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.SequenceMethodTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call, SequenceMethod sequenceMethod)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.TypedTranslate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TypedTranslator`1.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateExpression(Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.UnarySequenceMethodTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.SequenceMethodTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call, SequenceMethod sequenceMethod)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.TypedTranslate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TypedTranslator`1.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateExpression(Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MemberInitTranslator.TypedTranslate(ExpressionConverter parent, MemberInitExpression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TypedTranslator`1.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateExpression(Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateLambda(LambdaExpression lambda, DbExpression input)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateLambda(LambdaExpression lambda, DbExpression input, DbExpressionBinding& binding)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.OneLambdaTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call, DbExpression& source, DbExpressionBinding& sourceBinding, DbExpression& lambda)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.SelectTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.SequenceMethodTranslator.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression call, SequenceMethod sequenceMethod)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.MethodCallTranslator.TypedTranslate(ExpressionConverter parent, MethodCallExpression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TypedTranslator`1.Translate(ExpressionConverter parent, Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.TranslateExpression(Expression linq)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ExpressionConverter.Convert()
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ELinq.ELinqQueryState.GetExecutionPlan(Nullable`1 forMergeOption)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectQuery`1.c__DisplayClass7.b__6()
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.ExecuteInTransaction[T](Func`1 func, IDbExecutionStrategy executionStrategy, Boolean startLocalTransaction, Boolean releaseConnectionOnSuccess)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectQuery`1.c__DisplayClass7.b__5()
at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.DbExecutionStrategy.Execute[TResult](Func`1 operation)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectQuery`1.GetResults(Nullable`1 forMergeOption)
at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectQuery`1.<System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator>b__0()
at System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyEnumerator`1.MoveNext()

But my clas did have a parameterless public constructor, so why this error?

As it turned out, AutoMapper uses per default ‘contructor mapping’ when it finds matching parameter names on the target class. And so it was in my case. My constructor accepted name and value and AutoMapper used that for mapping my target model (even though I had a parameterless constructor and both properties publicly settable). However LINQ to Entities does not support this, hence this error. This is actually described in AutoMapper’s wiki under Construction (I always wanted to write under construction on a web page).

The workaround was easy (once you know it): I just renamed the constructor parameter name from name to key. As an alternative I could have disabled the behaviour upon AutoMapper initialisation (but I needed it in other places):

Mapper.Initialize(cfg => cfg.DisableConstructorMapping());