title: How to use the default Entity Framework and default date values
body: <p>In my SQL Server database schema I have a data table with a date field that contains a default value of</p>
  
  <pre><code>CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 111)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which is ideal for automatically inserting the date into the new record when manually entering records in to the database.</p>
  
  <p>The problem I have is that when using the Entity Framework and mapping the Date field, that the Entity Framework inserts a default value of DateTime.Min when the entity is instantiated.</p>
  
  <p>I cannot map the Date field to a nullable DateTime, i.e. DateTime?, nor am I able to use either CONVERT or DateTime.Now.Today in the default value of the Entity Designer as it only accepts hard-coded constant values.</p>
  
  <p>I can of course explicitly set the DateTime field in C# whenever the object is created, either explicitly in code, in the constructor of a partial class, or even during the saving changes event.</p>
  
  <p>Are there any other ways of achieving what I want where the default value calculation stored in the database table is actually used instead?</p>