Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad

Learn how to query databases interactively using LINQ and LINQPad

Overview

• Leverage the power of LINQPad to learn LINQ
• Discover LINQPad’s key features and options
• Learn about the cool applications of LINQPad such as testing, code snippet generation, and so on

In Detail

If you need to interact with databases, XML, in-memory collections, or remote services, LINQ can make your life simpler. The best way to discover LINQ is with the help of LINQPad, a free IDE whose first goal is to make sure that writing and interacting with your LINQ query is fun and easy. More generally, LINQPad is a C#/VB/F# scratchpad that instantly executes any expression, statement block, or program with rich output formatting and a wealth of features.

With Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad, you will quickly learn everything you need to know to start using LINQ. To accelerate your learning curve, you will discover how to use LINQPad and its features to test your queries interactively and experiment with all the options offered by LINQ.

In all probability, you already know C#, but have you had a chance to try out LINQ? Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad will introduce you to everything LINQ can offer and will let you interact with every example in LINQPad, LINQ’s best companion.

You will learn how to build and experiment with interactive queries with this practical guide illustrated with short and detailed code samples. You will also get acquainted with other cool applications of LINQpad such as testing, code snippet generation, and so on, along with a broad approach to LINQ (to object, to SQL, to XML, and so on).

What you will learn from this book

• Discover what LINQ can do and how it will help you
• Learn all about LINQ query operators to join, aggregate, select, and filter data
• Write LINQ queries with both method and query syntaxes
• Query databases and remote services using LINQ
• Create and manipulate XML and in-memory collections
• Differentiate LINQPad’s query types
• Handle user input with LINQPad
• Customize LINQPad to fit your taste or workflow

Approach

A step-by-step practical guide that will introduce you to LINQPad’s key features, thereby helping you to query databases interactively.

Who this book is written for

This book is aimed at C#/.Net developers who wish to learn LINQ programming and leverage the easy way of using LINQPad. No prior knowledge of LINQ or LINQPad is expected. A basic knowledge of SQL and XML is required for some chapters.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Discovering LINQPad
Chapter 2: Coding in LINQPad
Chapter 3: Learning LINQ Basics
Chapter 4: Discovering LINQ Query Operators
Chapter 5: Database and Relational Data
Chapter 6: Using other Data Sources
Chapter 7: Getting more of LINQPad