Chapter 8. LINQ Queries
LINQ, or Language Integrated Query, is a set of language and framework features for writing structured type-safe queries over local object collections and remote data sources. LINQ was introduced in C# 3.0 and Framework 3.5.
LINQ enables you to query any collection implementing IEnumerable<T>, whether an array, list, or XML DOM, as well as remote data
sources, such as tables in SQL Server. LINQ offers the benefits of both
compile-time type checking and dynamic query composition.
This chapter describes the LINQ architecture and the fundamentals of
writing queries. All core types are defined in the System.Linq and System.Linq.Expressions namespaces.
Note
The examples in this and the following two chapters are preloaded into an interactive querying tool called LINQPad. You can download LINQPad from www.linqpad.net.
Getting Started
The basic units of data in LINQ are sequences and elements. A sequence is any object that
implements IEnumerable<T> and
an element is each item in the sequence. In the following example,
names is a sequence, and "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry" are elements:
string[] names = { "Tom", "Dick", "Harry" };We call this a local sequence because it represents a local collection of objects in memory.
A query operator is a method
that transforms a sequence. A typical query operator accepts an
input sequence and emits a
transformed output sequence. In the
Enumerable class
in System.Linq, there are around 40 query operators—all implemented as static extension ...
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