Entity Framework references not loading automatically

Question

In the ADO.Net Entity Framework, I have an object which has 4 references to other objects. For some reason, when I query those references, two of them load automatically (as expected), and two of them always return null. Bizarrely enough, when I manually ask the references to load, they load just dandy. As an example: ``` if (account.HoldingEntity == null && account.HoldingEntityReference.EntityKey != null) { account.HoldingEntityReference.Load(); account.HoldingEntity = account.HoldingEntityReference.Value; } ``` When I first check the `HoldingEntity` it is always null, however the Load will return the HoldingEntity without problem. Any clues? Thanks!

Accepted Answer

Using ADO.NET Entities, you need to specify what entities you want to load automatically with `Include`, as in

```
Dim entity = (From e in db.Entities.Include("SubEntity"))
```

Entity Framework references not loading automatically

Solution

Problem