Leverage LINQ in ASP.NET 3.5 Projects

Chapter 1. Leverage LINQ in ASP.NET 3.5 Projects

Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a revolutionary Windows programming methodology that transforms the relationship between programs and data. LINQ defines a .NET application programming interface (API) and set of extensions to the Visual Basic and C# languages that enables querying diverse data types with a single syntax that's similar to Structured Query Language (SQL). Writing queries in your .NET language of choice provides strong typing and support for programmer productivity-enhancing features, such as statement completion and IntelliSense. The compiler detects query syntax errors before customers encounter them at run time. The LINQ framework accommodates custom extensions to support common data types and exotic data domains. When this Wrox Blox was written, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio (VS) 2008 supported LINQ implementations for querying collections of in-memory objects (LINQ to Objects), tables of SQL Server 200x and Compact Edition (SSCE) 3.5 databases (LINQ to SQL), ADO.NET DataSets (LINQ to DataSets), XML Infosets (LINQ to XML), and beta versions of business objects created by the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Microsoft intends to make the Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities available in the first half of 2008 in the form of a Web release.

This Wrox Blox begins with an overview of the fundamental LINQ implementation — LINQ to Objects — and a brief introduction to LINQ query expressions and standard query operators. ...