c# - EF loading virtual navigation property without accessing -

i have following models:

public class category {     public virtual icollection<product> products{get;set;}     public product()     {         products = new hashset<product>();     } }  public class product {     public guid categoryid{get;set;}     public virtual category {get;set;} } 

now if execute following statement:

var list = await uow.categories.query.where(x=>x.name.contains("mob")).tolistasync(); 

and return list json mvc controller action. throws following exception:

a circular reference detected while serializing object of type  'system.data.entity.dynamicproxies.category_7c2191cfexxxxxxx'. 

it happening because products collection not null , each product in turn contains category.

what reason virtual properties getting uploaded automatically?

edit:- turns out json serializer accessing properties , causing ef load them. have turned lazyloading off suggested haim770.

the reason entity framework proxy intercepting access call products property , automatically populates it.

you can explicitly turn lazy-loading off though:

context.configuration.lazyloadingenabled = false; 

you can project category list new list , populate desired properties. example:

var list = await uow.categories.query.where(x=>x.name.contains("mob"))                                      .select(x => new category {                                              id = x.id,                                              name = x.name                                      }).tolistasync();