Professional LINQ (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

Scott Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470041811 | ISBN-13: 978-0470041819

Professional LINQ introduces experienced programmers and database developers to LINQ database queries in their native VB and C# languages. Some of the topics covered include:

• LINQ Queries
• LINQ and the Standard Query Operators
• Programming with XLinq
• Querying XML with XLinq
• Mixing XML and other data models
• DLinq and Queries
• LINQ over datasets
• Interoperating with ADO.NET
• LINQ and ASP.NET

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Professional LINQ

Are you ready to revolutionize the way you can work with data? This book shows you how to effectively utilize LINQ so that you can query XML, SQLdatabases, ADO.NET DataSets, and other data sources, and it also delvesdeeper into the technology to demonstrate how LINQ can dramatically improve your applications.

Database pro Scott Klein first examines LINQ and Visual Studio® 2008, the language-specific features that support LINQ, as well as LINQ queries and the LINQ standard query operators. He then shows you how to program with LINQ to XML with both C# and Visual Basic® and how to use LINQ to XML with other data models. Plus, he walks you through LINQ to SQL queries, advanced query concepts, LINQ to Entities, and LINQ to DataSets. All of this valuable insight will provide you with powerful new tools so that you can easily extend and access information in your databases.

What you will learn from this book

• Features of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework that will help you better understand LINQ

• The syntax to use when writing LINQ queries

• The concepts, techniques, and programming fundamentals necessary to program with LINQ to XML

• How to use LINQ to XML with Visual Basic .NET

• All about LINQ to SQL queries and concepts

• Ways to work with the DataContext class and entity objects

• How to build applications using LINQ and associated LINQ providers

Who this book is for
This book is for developers who want to learn about LINQ and how it can benefit and enhance their applications.

Wrox Professional Guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Scott Klein is an independent consultant with a passion for all things SQL Server, .NET, and XML. He is the author of Professional SQL Server 2005 XML and Professional WCF Programming. He also writes the biweekly feature article for the SQL PASS Community Connector, and has contributed articles to both Wrox (www.wrox.com) and TopXML (www.TopXML.com). He frequently speaks to SQL Server and .NET user groups. Scott lives in Wellington, Florida, and when he is not sitting in front of a computer or spending time with his family, he can usually be found aboard his Yamaha at the local motocross track. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470041811
• ISBN-13: 978-0470041819
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid content, terrible editing/proofreading, November 19, 2008

By 

Hoelo (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional LINQ (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

Although it is a bit dry and dictionaryesque at times, kudos to Scott Klein on writing a solid book on LINQ and providing a lot of detail as to the specifics.

However, the editing of the book is absolutely terrible, particularly for one in the Wrox P2P series. There are numerous typos throughout the book, as well as areas where the content is simply wrong. For example, in one area (page 77), he describes a LINQ query as grouping by the last name, then displaying the first and middle names concatenated together, when in reality the code is grouping by the FIRST name and concatenating the middle and last together.

This might sound like I am nit-picking. However, when covering a topic like this where there are new and non-intuitive items (such as method syntax and lambda expressions) being discussed, it is critically important that the description of the example actually matches the example. Considering that the book rarely lists the syntax format itself, mismatches can lead to "learning" incorrect information.

Were the editing better, I would give this a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Oh, on another note.. Be aware that this book was based on Beta releases.. Things have changed a little bit.

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of LINQ, April 6, 2010

By 

Cole Knight - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional LINQ (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

Book arrived just as advertised. It was just not what I expected. Not enough meat in the book. But then that was my fault for not checking into it further. Hard to do with the limited things I can look at on the site. I can see the Table of Contents and part of a chapter.

4.0 out of 5 stars LINQ - Review, July 13, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Berney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional LINQ (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

What I liked about this book is how Scott talks about the Features of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework that will help developers like me have a better understanding of LINQ. First 4 chapters of the book is more of an introduction then goes into the fundamentals. The LINQ to XML coverage is excellent. He talks about creating, traversing, manipulating. For me I thought that was great because it saved me a lot of headaches of trying to do things with XML the old fashion way.

Scott also talks about LINQ to SQL - In my opinion majority of the book is about LINQ to SQL. In this subject he talks about different techniques that you can do with LINQ to SQL like for example LINQ to SQL Queries.

What I noticed is that he briefly metions about LINQ to Objects. LINQ to Objects allows .NET developers to write "queries" over collections of objects. Traditionally, working with collections of objects meant writing a lot of looping code using for loops or foreach loops to iterate through a list carrying out filtering using if statements, and some action like keeping a running sum of a total property. LINQ frees you from having to write looping code; it allows you to write queries that filter a list or calculate aggregate functions on elements in a collection as a set.

Overall, I think this book is a good reference for developers that want to get into LINQ to XML or LINQ to SQL.