Effective LINQ 

This 2 day hands-on class is designed to give attendees a comprehensive understanding of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) as introduced in Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. LINQ’s ability to dramatically simplify data access logic and its uniform syntax to manipulate object, relational, and XML data will change the way we write software on the .NET Platform. The course will not only explore high-level LINQ technologies such as LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, and LINQ to SQL, it will delve into the language constructs added to C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 that enable LINQ without the need for changes in Common Language Runtime.

• Build LINQ queries to access object, relational and XML data
• Utilize the VB 9.0 and C# 3.0 language enhancements that enable LINQ
• Databind to LINQ sources using both Windows Forms and ASP.NET
• Debug SQL queries generated by the LINQ to SQL engine

Day 1

New Language Constructs in C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0

• Extension Methods
• Anonymous Types & Automatic Properties
• Lambda Expressions
• Object and Collection Initializers
• Local Variable Type Inference

LINQ to Objects

• Basic Query Operators: Where, Select, From
• Type Projection
• Ordering, Grouping and Aggregate Operations
• Conversions with ToArray, ToList, ToDictionary, etc.

LINQ to XML

• XElement, XDocument and XAttributes
• XNode Selection Methods
• Deferred Query Evaluation
• Visual Basic XML Literals

Day 2

LINQ to SQL

• Mapping Designer
• DataContexts
• Stored Procedures and Functions
• Controlling Eager/Early Loading and Deferred Execution
• Object Tracking, Concurrency and Transactions

LINQ to DataSets

• Querying Typed and UnTyped DataSets
• Working with Null Values
• Refactoring existing code

DataBinding with LINQ

• Databinding in Windows Forms
• Databinding in ASP.NET

This course is intended for developers intending to build .NET 3.5 applications that use Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for data access. Experience programming with C# or VB.NET is assumed.