title: Transform data before and after storage in EF database
body: <p>I have a List that is serialized into an SQL database.  I am using EntityFramework, and it would be great if there is a way in the model to be able to have a way of extracting the field (stored as a varchar(MAX) - serialized base64) and deserializing into the List.  And then, when saving, I want to be able to have it automatically serialize.</p>
  
  <p>I am using EF Model First.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public string HostList { get; set; }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The above sample is what I want my hostlist to be.  It should be a List, and is stored currently in the database as varchar(MAX).  I was thinking of XML serialization etc and storing as xml, but that doesnt help with returning the format I want.</p>