Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008

Professional book about dynamic data in LINQ!

When I get first book about LINQ technology I think this is very hard technology, but when I read this Pro LINQ in C# 2008 vademecum I change my opinion about LINQ, and I started exploration this wonderful technique. After I finished read my book from Apress I can create my first applications where I used LINQ methods and ideas to delivery dynamic data from different data sources. Every day I read some pages in this very useful and innovative book. I think this is the best source professional information and samples how developers can working with this newest technology. LINQ is powerful but If You think about creating advance application with this, You must learn about You can use features, extensions in LINQ, because some elements is very different from standard technique access to dynamic data sources. Learning with this book is simple, because you can found code, code, and again code with professional comments. Where You read book, in this same moment You can create first applications, where You can demonstrating how to use a methods, and suggest from authors. Of course If you think about learn LINQ with this book You must programming in C#, but You don¿t must be very advance, because all required theory and programming methods have a long comments. Additional, in most books author tell us how we can building specific application in next steps, but don¿t inform us how we can rebuild our apps if something may not work as expected. In Pro LINQ You find every this information. In book you find this information: ¿ How to used all new LINQ features including extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous data types, and partial methods, ¿ how working in LINQ with XML data, ¿ how to query databases with LINQ to SQL and DataSet with LINQ to DataSet, ¿ and many new information. Summary, Joseph C. Rattz, Jr. write for Apress very professional book, and everyone professional developers who¿s think create apps with LINQ must have this book in desk, because this book can be primary source for information and samples about delivery dynamic data from different data sources.

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A well structured book and one to buy

LINQ is latest interesting tool to come from Microsoft, along with Silverlight, WPF and the Ajax toolkit. One of difficulties about these new technologies is that there is not enough documentation readily available. This book is the first one that has really captured my attention, maybe because it's the first one on the subject. Apress books are always a great buy, however in this instance, I reviewed the eBook version, which I have to say is not the easiest to navigate. I might be a cutting edge developer but I am also an old fashion type of guy, I like the feel and smell of new books! Anyway back to the subject, LINQ. I think we can all say we are newbies on the subject except for those who are familiar with ORM 'Object Relation Mapping' technology. LINQ implementation is quite different than the other ORM tools and can be surprising in some ways sometimes for beginners. The author here has taken the broad option of covering LINQ for both beginners and professionals. It something I like a lot because it avoids the need for two books on the same subject, which often can mean you never quite find the right piece of code you are looking for. Kudos to the author who admits that this is his first book I think he should continue writing. I would have no problem recommending another book by the same author . The introduction is a well written exercise, where the writer gets the reader's attention using some clever basic 'hello' messages coded with LINQ before he delves into a deeper understanding of the language. The style is straightforward, taking an honest approach. You won't find any pompous statements in the book saying something like 'I know what I am talking about, I was born with LINQ!', but instead you find a more frank admission that the author has also learned by writing on the subject himself. I am looking forward now to a VB version of the book, because this is the only negative comment I can make. It would have been easy to write the examples in VB and C# in the same book. I can code in both, but I know you have subtle differences. LINQ is not only for database gurus, and I like the fact that in the book the LINQ to SQL has been pushed further down the content list. What is also good is that because the book is well structured you can jump directly to any section. I would have added more diagrams and graphics to the text to lighten what is a heavy read. Another little thing but useful for the beginners would have been to have some explanations on using the LINQ designer class in Visual Studio 2008, which is quite absent as far as I could see. Now I do hope that my review will encourage you to buy this book because not only is it the first one on the subject, but because it covers almost everything you need to know on the subject.

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LINQ - is already here!

In the last few months I started to learn one of the great frameworks from Microsoft named LINQ. In order to get a better understand about the LINQ framework I read a lot from the official Microsoft documentation. I even shared people in my thoughts about the LINQ project 'I focused on LINQ to SQL with its pervious name D-LINQ', in my blog. After a while I took a time to read the 'Pro LINQ' book. This book exposes me to some fundamentals in the LINQ world which I wasn't familiar with, and helped me to improve my knowledge in the LINQ world. The LINQ framework is based on some new features from the new C# 3.0. Therefore this book brings a short briefing about these features, each one of them accompanied by good demonstration. Every chapter in this book is 'almost' standing alone. My favorite section in this book was the LINQ to SQL. It's the most powerful and interesting part in the LINQ Framework. The book starts this section with a small chapter that helps the readers to understand the basic terminology about all the LINQ to SQL components. The book contains all the detail about verity options to work with the LINQ to SQL in the real work. Furthermore, the book compares some of these methods and gives us the ability to choose the appropriate solutions based of your needs 'like: Projecting into Entity Classes vs. Nonentity Classes, Using the SqlMetal command line or the Object Relational Designer, XML Mapping File Vs. DBML Intermediate File and etc'. The book contains a lot of tips that really can help during the daily work. I'll mention the top 5 tips that can help you to implement LINQ to SQL in your application: ¿How to support the legacy code. ¿How to use the Data Context Logger. ¿Take Advantage of Deferred Queries ¿Consider Using Partial Classes or Mapping Files ¿Consider Using Partial Methods. While the book shows the ability of the auto generated sophisticated code, it gives good guidelines of how to write all this code in your own hands and a set of rules about the issues that you should be aware when you implement it by yourself. I really re commend this book for all people that want to learn about LINQ from introduction to professional level.

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A reviewer

This year, at TechEd 2007 EMEA, LINQ turned out to be THE HOT topic of the event. Because of high interest many LINQ-related sessions had to be repeated. So I was happily surprised to find that Apress already had a LINQ-book in the PRO-series, which assures me to provide me no-nonsense technical content I need as a professional software developer. And was I right... The book starts with CODE 'first line of chapter 1' and ends with CODE 'last line in chapter 18', what can a developer want more? In a fluent prose, the author covers all variations of LINQ LINQ to Objects, XML, DataSet, SQL and Entities. At the right place new C# 3.0 features like extension methods, anonymous types, lamba expressions, etc come into play, not without showing their use and value for the LINQ-topic being covered. For my day-to-day programming, I do a lot of XML-processing, so I mostly appreciated part 3 with 4 chapters dedicated to LINQ to XML. It showed me how to migrate my existing code, using a variation of XPATH, XSLT and .NET's Xml-Readers/Writers, Navigators and Iterators, etc. to this powerful uniform API. After the last page, you don't end up with just another book for on the shelf, this is one to keep close at hand 'that's where mine is'. Besides teaching a new .NET-language topic, it offers clear samples, shows 'hidden' pitfalls and gives lots of practical tips. As said it's a PRO-book, meaning some mature level of programming skills is preferred.

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LINQ: More than just an ORM

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.

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Book Review - Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008

Recently I've started to read a book about LINQ. I must say, LINQ language some how manage to amaze me each time i starting a new topic, it already changed the way I code. I consider LINQ to be a 'Must Know' language for every developer in every day coding. This book is very light to understanding, and contains allot of good code examples with allot of explanations in it, step by step. Later in the book, the language starts to be more complex and less understandable, because of some complex code samples. Nonetheless, if you determine to understand the code, and read it couple of time again, finally you will understand the complex code. It covers all the LINQ related topics: LINQ to Objects LINQ to XML LINQ to DataSet LINQ to SQL LINQ to Entities You will also find some lambada expression with a good explanation about what the hack are they doing and way. I must say, that I having allots of fun learning from this book, because the ease of the syntax and the language by the author Jr. C. Rattz, this book is speaking my language so i found it very educating. I really recommend this book for developers how already start messing with LINQ and not for beginners developers.

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