Manning - LINQ in Action

Welcome to LINQ in Action. This book is an introduction to the Microsoft .NET LINQ technology and the rich toolset that comes with it. LINQ stands for Language INtegrated Query. In a nutshell, it makes query operations like SQL statements into first-class citizens in .NET languages like C# and VB. LINQ offers built-in support for querying in-memory collections such as arrays or lists, XML, DataSets, and relational databases. But LINQ is extensible and can be used to query various data sources.

Our goal with this book is to help developers who have an existing knowledge of the .NET Framework and the C# or VB.NET language to discover the concepts introduced by LINQ and gain a complete understanding of how the technology works, as well as how to make the best of it in their projects. LINQ in Action covers the entire LINQ spectrum. From Hello World code samples and the new C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 features to LINQ’s extensibility and a tour of all the LINQ providers, this book has everything you need to get up to speed with LINQ and to be able to create applications that take advantage of it. We believe this book provides the right mix of theory and examples. We made sure to keep the focus on the practical side of things, because we think that nothing’s better than a hands-on exploration of the technology. Several additions have been made to the C# and VB.NET languages, as well as to the .NET class library. But fear not: These language innovations aren’t difficult to grasp when you have the right code sample in front of you.