Customer Reviews

Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 (Expert's Voice in .NET)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Microsoft must be under new management, we are getting a slew of new, truly useful tools that are making pretty big strides forward for faster more enjoyable C# development and ease of maintenance. The latest technologies seem well worth taking the time to master. I find the combination of LINQ and the Sync framework couldn't have come at a better time. While the book mentions that LINQ to SQL only supports SQL Server, that is no longer true as you can also use (at least) MS SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 (which is required for the Sync Framework). You can't use the visual object relational designer with SSCE but the book documents SQLMetal, and you can use that to create your context.

Overall I found this to be a very good book but it has a few flaws. If like me you are interested in LINQ for a current or upcoming database project here is what I would suggest. First don't start with this book, finish with it. Start with the ten excellent screencasts by Mike Taulty. Then read this book. Your reading will go much faster and you'll get a satisfyingly sated feeling. The author will probably hate me for saying this, but if you already know SQL or ADO.NET 2.0, I would suggest reading Chapters 1-3, then skim 4 and 5 just to get an overview of the operators available. Then read part 5 (Chapters 12-18) on LINQ to SQL. After you digest that I would suggest whichever topics interest you the most, then I would finish with a more thorough read of Chapters 4 and 5 on Deferred and Nondeffered operators, which in my mind are really a thoroughly documented reference section.

The reason the author will hate that, is he doesn't want readers to use LINQ for just database purposes, and he states that many times in the book. In fact, I think that is why he put the LINQ to SQL section at the end. However, he seems to have made a significant effort to make any part readable on its own, so I see no problem with skipping to the end so early.

The book doesn't really cover data binding, but there is a lot of good information on that available on the internet (the above mentioned screencasts show some of them, and an overly long video on Channel 9 with Young Joo from August 2007 shows even more).

I also have a few nit-picky things that drove me crazy. The most significant one being the amount of repetition and unedited console output. I was also none too happy that the author didn't mention that the Visual Studio Command prompt was under the START menu not an IDE menu. But then again without the author I wouldn't even have known there was a Visual Studio 2008 command prompt.

The weakest part of the book is the index, it is downright anemic. In the several weeks since I've finised the book the index has NEVER helped me find things I remember reading. If you find items of interest you better pencil them into the back cover if you want to find them again later. If one book ever needed a free PDF, this one is it, but they charge $10 for it. Maybe that is why they made the index so bad, to encourage you to fork over another $10.

That said, I also found a good half-dozen or so gems in the book that saved me significant time. Now I could tell you what those are but I think you should buy the book to find out.

When I first heard someone describe LINQ, I thought "Oh, another ORM... that doesn't sound very exciting".

Upon further research I discovered that LINQ is actually quite a bit more than just "another ORM", in fact, I would say it is one of the more interesting things from Microsoft lately.

The book Pro LINQ does a very good job of covering this new technology, and it does so in a way that you would expect for a "Professional" level book.

For example, I found it immediately appealing that Chapter 1 starts with a code example before ever getting to any regular text. The rest of the book follows suit. There are plenty of explanations, but sometimes seeing the code & result provides the clearest view.

The author does a good job of explaining the technology in detail, why it is useful, and very practical tips on how to make the most of it. The book covers using LINQ to query Objects, XML, DataSets and finally SQL.

I have used the book as an introduction to the topic, and for that it has done an excellent job. It appears that the book is comprehensive enough to also serve as a working reference book, but I have not personally had the chance to use it as such yet.

This book claims to be about code, code, and then more code. I completely agree with the author's claim, it is code from front to back.

The book covers every feature of Linq in great detail, but one of my favorite parts of the book is chapter on the C# 3.0 Language features and other parts of the book that show how to take advantage of the Linq language features in everyday application code.

The author goes into great detail in every part of the of the book. The author also has a great companion site that is being updated with the latest new features coming out, like LINQ to XSD.

The accompanying code is very usable and well organized.

The only thing lacking would not be a legitimate complaint, since the authors claim code level detail and not architectural level guidance, but I will mention it anyway. I would have like to have seen more guidance on architecture and how Linq fits into the big picture. That is not covered, but like I said, they didn't claim to, so I can't ding them. The point of the comment.... 2nd edition ...hint, hint.....

If you want to get into the guts of Linq, this book is definitely for you. I highly recommend it for every .NET 3.5 programmer.

I can't believe that this book was degraded, and also was given a star by a reviewer who pretend to know everything about LINQ. This is the best book out there for any serious developer who want to learn about this new technology. the book is well structured and was written in a way that beginners as well as experienced developers can get up to speed very quickly. I'd like to thank the author for doing such a marvelous work on this book.

LINQ is one of the coolest ideas to come out of MS in the past few years. Its tight integration with Visual Studio 2008 makes data access more intuitive and we can FINALLY drop the "SQL as strings" syntax in favor of something that can actually be validated at compile time instead of "blowing up" at run-time.

I've spent a fair amount of time researching LINQ and even played with it somewhat. This book would be great for those who at least know the basics of LINQ and what its purpose is. I honestly can't think of a topic about LINQ that was not addressed in some detail in this book. The writing was complete with lots of examples to illustrate the points. An earlier reviewer has said they "stopped at chapter 4" because of the lack of detailed query language syntax descriptions BUT I don't understand because there is an exhaustive definition of the language in chapter 2. I think their 1 star review was unfair and borderline malicious.

Until something comes along better, this would be my pick for the best LINQ book on the market.

I'm an intermediate level C# programmer (I think) and have been using ADO.net with SQL-Server to build a database application for a client. When I read about LINQ earlier this year, it sounded like something too good to be true. I started with a couple of other books, but found practical explanations of getting things to work lacking. I get the impression, the authors are too far advanced and just assume we have fairly expert knowledge of some of the nuts and bolts things that are elementary to them, so they don't explain these things.
Joseph Rattz's book does not assume we know how to do a lot of this stuff. Rather he explains in detail, how to get LINQ up and running, and to actually get a query completed. I was able within an hour to run SQL Metal to generate an entity class (basically a map from SQL Server to corresponding data objects), and run some of the example queries in the book. That said, this is not a lightweight book for someone new to programming. It's just that he does an excellent job explaining a complex subject. It gets into advanced topics on LINQ and requires some knowledge of C#. If you plan to use this to work with SQL Server, you should also have some experience with that also.
Summing up, there is just something about Mr. Rattz's writing style that makes this book easy to read and understand. I find I'm actually enjoying reading this book, and I certainly can't say that about most technical books I study.

This book provides a *very* comprehensive treatment of LINQ. It establishes the background and foundation for LINQ, and then describes in effective detail and with sound examples, the different facilities and uses for LINQ. I heartily recommend this book for anyone getting into the world of LINQ.

Very detailed and comprehensive book. The author did a great job of introducing LINQ where a beginner or advanced developer could easily understand. This is not a book that will collect dust on your shelf after reading. Personally this book will remain on my desk for quite some time.

I've been very impressed with the scope of this book and Joseph Rattz' writing style. I think he really gets his message across to his audience effectively and the text is very approachable. This is definitely a 'Pro' level book as he doesn't waste time explaining unrelated programming concepts - he assumes you understand those already.

He starts out looking at Linq and how it applies to objects, how this applies to XML and then Linq-to-Sql. In the course of this, he looks at fundamental things like how the execution actually works at runtime and shows you how to examine this on your own in very nice detail. He also takes time to explain things like tracking down the sql that is being generated (with respect to Linq-to-Sql).

Excellent book - it definitely earns a spot on my bookshelf.

Well written book. Tips he gives in the first chapters are worth the price of the book alone. I just bought another copy so I have one at work and at home. I am constantly going to the book and finding the sample code I need. Very deep examples and explanations on everything. He never assumes you know something so he explains everything in detail sometimes more than once.