This may be a stupid question, but I have to ask:

How to check if attempt has been made to fetch entity from database, but was not found?

Background:

I have this helper class which lets users know what actions they can take, but requires that an object be passed into it.

I want to check if an attempt has been made to get that entity from the database. if it is null, then users can go ahead, but if not I would like to make more checks

However if no attempt has been made to fetch the entity from the database, I would like to throw an exception.

It all depends on your code, you should use a fetching method where you check the returning result.

Please check the following thread: http://www.llblgen.com/TinyForum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=2013

Okay, so the answer seems to be no. Thanks.

When you fetch an entity, the Property yourEntity.Fields.State should be either EntityState.OutOfSync if the entity was not found or EntityState.Fetched if the entity was found.

I guess that's what you were looking for.