PowerShell is a scripting language, and like all scripting languages it struggles to perform well with rapid iterative processes such as aggregation. It isn't well-known that PowerShell can use LINQ for many of those tasks which would otherwise use iteration, though somewhat awkwardly. However, some of the speed improvements you can get are startling. To get you well started, Michael explains every LINQ function , gives you example code in C#, The PowerShell way of getting the result, and finally Powershell's use of LINQ. This article could change the way you use PowerShell.… Read more
LINQ is best learned from examples, but few LINQ resources supply, along with the code, pictures that illustrate what each associated LINQ operator in the code is doing. This article is a visual index of all LINQ operators, that explain clearly with code and illustrations what even the most arcane LINQ operators actually do. To increase your enlightenment, it is accompanied with a reference chart to provide even more detail. Michael Sorens is, with these two articles, determined to persuade you of the power of LINQ.… Read more
Here is a handy wallchart that condenses the information contained in our article 'The Visual LINQ Lexicon' even further, but which adds some more technical specs that allow you, for example, to see at a glance which operators use deferred execution and which use immediate execution. You can use it to see what operators use lambda syntax and which ones are available in query syntax. You can see all the other key properties of all the LINQ operators, even including even how much of a sequence a given operator actually consumes. Click here to download the PDF version of the reference chart: … Read more
Although we like to think that our programming techniques are progressive and in tune with the bleeding edge of software development practices, too often they are directly influenced by restrictions faced in the post-war decades when computers
first became mainstream. As these restrictions no longer apply, is it time to relinquish such things as cursors,
'tibbling', storing display formats, using short names for symbols and primary keys?… Read more
LINQ expressions can be made much easier to comprehend and modify by using extension methods to create pipes and filters. Ed takes a working LINQ expression and makes stepwise improvements to it to make it clearer.… Read more
Underscore.JS is a useful JavaScript library for anyone familiar with the LINQ syntax. It is not a direct LINQ port like Rx or linq.js, but provides a very useful "LINQ-like" experience for anyone familiar with functional programming. Is it similar enough to LINQ to make it easy to transfer your existing skills?… Read more
In LINQ, the 'fluent' method syntax flows logically and intuitively, and allows them to be combined simply, because each method returns the appropriate type of object for the next. Can this fluent technique be extended as an API style to make it easier to develop C# team-based applications for enterprises? … Read more
It's possible to build up dynamic LINQ queries or queries with several conditional criteria. In fact there are several options for doing this, including the use of expression trees.… Read more
LINQ is one of the few technologies that you can start to use without a lot of preliminary learning. Also, it lends itself to learning by trying out examples. With Michael's help, you can watch as your conventional C# code changes to ravenous LINQ before your very eyes.
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LINQ has the capabilities of providing a great productivity boost. LINQ Chaining is particularly powerful magic, giving your code greater clarity and brevity. Using it, and debugging it, can be tricky without the right tools and techniques, but Michael is on hand to explain and make suggestions.
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LINQ makes code easier to write and maintain by abstracting the data source. It provides a uniform way to handle widely diverse data structures within an application. LINQ's Lambda syntax is clever enough even to allow you to create generic building blocks with hooks into which you can inject arbitrary functions. Michael Sorens explains, and demonstrates with examples.… Read more
LINQ is a valuable technology. LINQ to XML, LINQ to Objects and LINQ to XSD, in particular, can save valuable time for developers and produce more maintainable code. Michael describes how he used three different flavours of LINQ to map XML to a Treeview component that he used in the QueryPicker control that was the subject of a two-part article here on Simple-Talk. … Read more
Gayani provides the complete source code for a sample Data Access Layer for LINQ to SQL, using the Northwind Database, and explains how it all works and how to get good performance. She shows how easy it is to use stored procedure and views as well as queries to provide a robust run-time infrastructure for managing relational data as objects.… Read more
LINQ may be getting the most attention in the forthcoming .NET 3.5, but there are also several new language features that add functionality and make life easier for the programmer. John Papa explains more...
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If you're a .NET developer, working with or without a database on the back-end, your world is about to change. The emergence of LINQ and SQLMetal technologies will mark a fundamental change to your development approach to collections, and provide a simpler, more consistent way of accessing your database. Steven McCabe provides what you need to get started.
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