Introducing Microsoft® LINQ [Paperback]

Paolo Pialorsi (Author), Marco Russo (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735623910 | ISBN-13: 978-0735623910 | Publication Date: May 16, 2007

Get a head start on using the Microsoft Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Project with advance insights from two experienced developers. Data-rich applications can be difficult to create because of the tremendous differences between query languages used to access data and programming languages commonly used to write applications. This practical guide introduces LINQ, a set of extensions to the Microsoft Visual C#(r) and Microsoft Visual Basic(r) programming languages. Instead of traversing different language syntaxes required for accessing data from relational and hierarchical data sources, developers will learn how to write queries natively in C# or Visual Basic. Written by two experienced developers with strong ties to Microsoft s developer teams, this book introduces the LINQ architecture and classes, describes the new language features in both C# and Visual Basic, and provides code samples in both languages.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Key Book Benefits:

-Delivers one of the first inside looks at LINQ--from experienced developers who have worked with the technology from the start

-Covers architecture, syntax, and classes so that developers can see how to integrate LINQ into their toolkits

-Provides code samples in C# and Visual Basic

About the Author

Paolo Pialorsi is a consultant, trainer, and author who specializes in developing distributed applications architectures and Microsoft SharePoint enterprise solutions. He is the author of Programming Microsoft LINQ and Introducing Microsoft LINQ (Microsoft Press), and has written three Italian-language books about XML and Web Services. Paolo is one of the content owners of the Italian edition of the Microsoft SharePoint Conference, and a popular speaker at industry conferences.

Marco Russo is a founder of DevLeap. He is a regular contributor to developer user communities and is an avid blogger on Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence and other Microsoft technologies. Marco provides consulting and training to professional developers on the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft SQL Server. He wrote "Programming Microsoft LINQ" and "Introducing Microsoft LINQ" with Paolo Pialorsi, "Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services" with Alberto Ferrari and Chris Webb, and is the author of two books in Italian about C# and the common language runtime.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (May 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735623910
• ISBN-13: 978-0735623910
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but not great, June 11, 2007

By 

Paul "Ajax Developer" (Gaithersburg, Moldova, Republic of) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft® LINQ (Paperback)

I learned a few things from the book, but overall it left me wanting more. The price matches a much bigger book, so I would've expected it to be full of good stuff, but in fact it was almost cursory on most topics. I realize it's an "Introducing" book, but for the price I would've wanted a somewhat deeper introduction.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book although a little light, September 15, 2007

By 

William G. Ryan "Uber Book Nerd" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft® LINQ (Paperback)

I feel a little bad rating this a 4 since it's a Beta book. It's really hard writing on betas b/c material changes so frequently.

I liked the book a lot and thought it covered the topics of LINQ and EF pretty well. I think though, it was a bit too heavy into language features of C# 3.0 and VB 9.0. Yes, it's necessary to cover many of these in the context of LINQ but I think proportion wise, it was a bit too much there and a little light in other areas (for instance, unless I totally missed it, i didn't see anything about parallell LINQ). The coverage of EF was good, but I would love to have seen about 50 more pages.

Although it's small the content is right to the point however. They do a good job of discussing LINQ and EF and even showing some more advanced areas and I will say that if you read this book and understand it, you can get just about anywhere you want to be with LINQ. You can read it quickly and be up and running very quickly and that's the strength.

In all honesty, I should probably have given it a 5. My personal opinion is that it's not quite a 5 but definitely higher than a 4. If it were 10.00 cheaper, I probably would have went for the 5 - but it's not a cheap book for the size of it.

The authors did a great job in many areas and considering it's a beta release, they did a superb job.

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad - 1/3 of examples actually run, February 26, 2011

By 

Brett M Morin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft® LINQ (Paperback)

This book should be titled how to get confused how Linq should work. Most of the examples in the book either are broke, missing NEEDED namespaces (the author almost always is missing key pieces of code to get examples to run) or more syntaxes to run and will drive you crazy. At the end of nearly all the examples the author should write: "This code will probably mess up go online to see what I was trying to explain."

The author will go from using specific examples from a database to theoretical ones in the very next example where you are supposed to guess what should be happening in your imagination. I would probably rate this as one of the worst books on getting started in anything. Generally when you are 'introducing' someone to something you write full syntax and include full namespaces for .NET. This one omits nearly everything so you are on your own when something breaks to figure it out.

If you want to learn Linq, this book will more than likely get you started with the right questions to ask. But is NOT a good book to give working viable code that (surprise, surprise) actually compiles. Some of the examples when they run don't even give you the detail but the meta data and the author does not realize, some fail, some are missing. There are barely any that run as stated in the entire book.