Retrieving Entity Framework Entity Property MaxLength Value from EDMX

I have an auto-generated entity framework Entity Data Model Designer File (edmx).  And while I am using Data Annotations for validation purposes, there are times when retrieving the maxlength of an entity property programmatically would be very useful. 

In some cases, I may want to simply truncate the value, rather than throw an error if the maxlength of a property is exceeded.  Or I may want to surface the maxlength property to the client for client-side validation purposes.

It turns out to be a simple query, but it took me a while to find it.  You will need to reference the following libraries:

using System.Data.Objects.DataClasses;
using System.Data.Metadata.Edm;

This is the method to retrieve the MaxLength property.  Please note that you may get an exception if the property does not have a MaxLength property specified.

public static int? GetMaxLength(this EntityObject entityObject, string entityProperty)
{
CATDBEntities _context = new CATDBEntities();
int? result = null;
using (_context)
{
    var q = from meta in _context.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace)
                        .Where(m => m.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
            from p in (meta as EntityType).Properties
                .Where(p => p.DeclaringType.Name == entityObject.GetType().Name
                    && p.Name == entityProperty
                    && p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name == "String")
            select p;

    var queryResult = from meta in _context.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace)
                        .Where(m => m.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
                        from p in (meta as EntityType).Properties
                            .Where(p => p.DeclaringType.Name == entityObject.GetType().Name
                                && p.Name == entityProperty
                                && p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name == "String")
                        select p.TypeUsage.Facets["MaxLength"].Value;
    if (queryResult.Count() > 0)
    {
        result = Convert.ToInt32(queryResult.First());
    }
}
return result;
}

To call this method, simply instantiate the entity object and pass in the proper parameters:

project _project = new project();
            int? maxLength = DataAnnotation.GetMaxLength(_project, "project_name");