Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is Microsoft's new technology for powerful, general purpose data access. This technology provides a fully-integrated query language, available in both C# 3.0 and VB 9.0, for high-level data access against objects, relational databases, and XML documents.
In this Short Cut you'll learn about LINQ and the proposed C# 3.0 extensions that support it. You'll also see how you can use LINQ and C# to accomplish a variety of tasks, from querying objects to accessing relational data and XML. Best of all, you'll be able to test the examples and run your own code using the latest LINQ CTP, available free from Microsoft. This Short Cut includes a complete reference to the standard LINQ query operators.
Joe Hummel holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. He is an associate professor of Computer Science at Lake Forest College, a professional trainer for Pluralsight, content creator and webcast presenter for MSDN, and the co-author of two books for Addison-Wesley. Joe has been working with Microsoft developer technologies since 1992, and .NET technologies since 2001. He is one of MSDN's most prolific and respected webcast presenters, having delivered over 60 webcasts with consistently high ratings. He has the theoretical background necessary to understand and evaluate the new features of C# 3.0, as well as the practical experience in multi-tier business applications needed to understand and evaluate the impact of LINQ.
