title: Entity Framework Many to many through containing object
body: <p>I was curious if it is possible to map an intermediate table through a containing object.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class Subscriber : IEntity
  {
      [Key]
      public int Id { get; set; }
      public string Name { get; set; }
      private ChannelList _subscribedList { get; set; }
      public int NumSubscribedChannels { get { return _subscribedList.Count(); } }
  }
  
  public class HelpChannel : IEntity
  {
      [Key]
      public int Id { get; set; }
      public string name { get; set; }
      public string category { get; set; }
      public int group { get; set; }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need to have a subscriber table, channel table and an intermediate table to link a subscriber to his/her channels. </p>
  
  <p>Is it possible to map the list that is within the ChannelList object to the Subscriber Model? </p>
  
  <p>I figured that's probably not possible and that I would need to just have a private List for EF to map. But I wasn't sure if EF will do that for private variables. Will it?</p>
  
  <p>I'm hoping that is does because if it has to be public to maintain the encapsulation.</p>