This Wrox Blox introduces you to Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a .NET 3.5 application programming interface (API) and set of extensions to the Visual Basic and C# languages. First, you get acquainted with LINQ’s Standard Query Operators (SQOs) and new keywords that define the language. Then you use the SQOs to write LINQ expressions in C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 that let you query diverse data types with a single syntax that’s similar to Structured Query Language (SQL). You also discover how to take advantage of a shorthand method-call syntax that chains lambda expressions.

Next you discover how Visual Studio 2008’s primary domain-specific LINQ implementation—LINQ to SQL—persists collections of business objects in SQL Server 200x Tables. You dig into the details of creating an object-oriented data access layer (DAL) with LINQ to SQL’s graphical object/relational mapping (O/RM) tool. You see how to automatically generate entity classes by dragging table nodes from a Server Explorer connection to the O/R Mapper’s and discover how associations between entities called EntityRefs and EntitySets correspond to n:1 and 1:n relationships. You also learn how to use the DAL to bind UI controls on data-driven Web pages with ASP.NET’s new LinqDataSource control that substitutes for the ObjectDataSource control. Complete C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0 project code for the LINQ2SQL2ASP.sln project is available for downloading.

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Roger Jennings is an independent .NET application and SQL Server database developer and author with more than 1.25 million English copies of his 30-some computer books in print. Roger's latest book is the 11th edition of Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Access 2007, ISBN 0-7897-1602-2) for QUE Books. He’s the author of Expert One-on-One Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming, (http://www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=076457678X) and is in the process of completing Professional ADO.NET 3.5: LINQ and the Entity Framework for WROX/Wiley. He's also a Visual Studio Magazine (http://www.ftponline.com/vsm/) contributing editor and online columnist for 1105 Media’s Redmond Media Group, and manages the OakLeaf Systems blog (http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/), which specializes in LINQ, Visual Studio, SQL Server, and Entity Framework topics. His Code of Federal Regulations XML Web services demo project won Microsoft's 2002 .NET Best Horizontal Solution Award. Reach him at Roger_Jennings@compuserve.com.