MVC EF get many-to-many relationship table - asp.net-mvc

Question

I set up my many-to-many relationship in EF. But I can only refer to the main tables, not the bridge table. How can I refer to the bridge table?
for example:
User: UserID, name
Group: GroupID, group
UserGroup: UserID, GroupID
I can refer to the User table and Group table by typing
context.User.(some linq expression)
context.Group.(some lin1 expression)
But I cannot refer to the bridge table by typing
context.UserGroup

Answer 1

It would be great to know which versions of MVC and EF you are working with. Based on the assumption that its MVC 4 and EF5...
The point of a Join table is to keep referential integrity going. As #timothy says, there is no reason to refer to the (UserGroup) Join table unless there is actual additional data in it i.e. payload. If you're putting other data in the UserGroup table then its not a Join table anyway.
Rather use some Lazy or Eager loading to get the Group data you need:
Lazy Loading
var users = context.Users
foreach (User x in users)
{
foreach (Group f in x.Groups)
//notice the x user being referred to here for Groups
{
// Whatever you want to do with the objects
}
}
Eager Loading
var users = context.Users.Include(g => g.Groups)
foreach (User x in users)
{
foreach (Group f in x.Groups)
//notice the x user being referred to here for Groups
{
// Whatever you want to do with the objects
}
}
The 'foreach' code above is just added to show how to include it in a loop example. Its the first line of these Loading examples that are important.
Once you have defined 'var users' the rest is "easy".
Good Luck!

Answer 2

When defining a many-to-many relationship you have two options.
Link User to Group, and let it know that UserGroup is your join table
Link User to UserGroup as many-to-one, also link Group to UserGroup using many-to-one.
The reason to use option 2 is when you have something other than just the two IDs in the join table. An example I had recently was a SortOrder field.
When querying with a materialized join table, it feels a little clumsy:
context.User.Select(user => new {
Name = user.Name,
Groups = user.GroupJoins
.OrderBy(groupJoin => groupJoin.SortOrder)
.Select(groupJoin => groupJoin.Group.Name)
});

Answer 3

Why you want refer to that junction table...?!
If you want to get Users of a group:
var users = from u in db.UserGroups.Include("User").Include("Group")
Where u.GroupID == gid
select u;
And simply vice versa if you need Groups of a User:
var groups = from g in db.UserGroups.Include("User").Include("Group")
Where g.UserID == uid
select g;