Linq in Action by Fabrice Marguerie, Steve Eichert, Jim Wooley

From Barnes & Noble

For programmers, dealing with data is just too complicated. First, there's the mismatch between object languages and relational databases. Then, there are all those sources of data to contend with: from XML documents to file systems to in-memory objects. Say you're working with .NET. Knowing VB or C# isn't enough: You need to deal with SQL, XML, XPath, ADO.NET, System.XML, and whatever else. LINQ eliminates this complexity. That's why .NET developers are so excited about it -- and it's why you'll be so excited about LINQ in Action.

This book teaches LINQ from soup to nuts: what it is, and how to use it to simplify and unify all forms of data access. The authors illuminate LINQ's consistent syntax, programming model, and "language-integrated query" concept, and teach techniques that'll work whether your data's stored in an RDBMS or an array.

The authors treat each LINQ "provider" in detail: LINQ to Objects, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, LINQ to DataSet, and LINQ to Entities (which works with the ADO.NET Entity Framework). You'll find plenty of brief, concise code linked to specific tasks -- but you'll also find more sophisticated code designed to solve problems that would otherwise trip you up in the real world.

For example, LINQ now supports queries to generic collections. But what if your .NET code doesn't yet use generics? The authors walk you through a solution. For example, again: Often, you won't want to present data directly to the user -- you'll want to filter, sort, and format it first. LINQ handles that easily, but there are gotchas (What if the user doesn't provide values for all query criteria?). Again, this book offers solutions. You can tell these authors are really doing production work with LINQ -- and if you intend to, that's the kind of help you want. Bill Camarda, from the February 2008 Read Only

From the Publisher

LLINQ, Language INtegrated Query, is a new extension to the Visual Basic and C# programming languages designed to simplify data queries and database interaction. It addreses O/R mapping issues by making query operations like SQL statements part of the programming language. It also offers built-in support for querying in-memory collections like arrays or lists, XML, DataSets, and relational databases.

"LINQ in Action" is a fast-paced, comprehensive tutorial for professional developers. This book explores what can be done with LINQ, shows how it works in an application, and addresses the emerging best practices. It presents the general purpose query facilities offered by LINQ in the upcoming C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 languages. A running example introduces basic LINQ concepts. You'll then learn to query unstructured data using LINQ to XML and relational data with LINQ to SQL. Finally, you'll see how to extend LINQ for custom applications.

"LINQ in Action" will guide you along as you explore this new world of lambda expressions, query operators, and expression trees. As well, you'll explore the new features of C# 3.0, VB.NET 9.0. The book is very practical, anchoring each new idea with running code. Whether you want to use LINQ to query objects, XML documents, or relational databases, you will find all the information you need to get started

But "LINQ in Action" does not stop at the basic code. This book also shows you how LINQ can be used for advanced processing of data, including coverage of LINQ's extensibility, which allows querying more data sources than those supported by default. All code samples are built on a concrete business case. The running example, LinqBooks, isapersonal book cataloging system that shows you how to create LINQ applications with Visual Studio 2008.

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