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LINQ and Visual Studio 2008's new language features |
In order to accommodate LINQ, Microsoft had to introduce some new features to Visual Basic 2008 and C# 3.0. The following articles introduce these four language-agnostic features and offer details on how well they work with Visual Studio 2008's multi-targeting. From here, the next section of the LINQ Learning Guide discusses how to build a LINQ provider.
Learn the basics of
LINQ (SingingEels)
This concise introduction to LINQ provides some thoughts on using extension methods and lambda
expressions (more on those below) for those who opt to take the plunge.
LINQ
beyond queries: Strong-typed refection (TheServerSide.NET)
LINQ makes queries a first-class concept. LINQ can be used for way more than just querying, though
-- think lambda expressions and strong-typed reflection. (Code samples are in C#.)
New
VS 2008 language feature: Extension methods (Scott Guthrie)
As Guthrie explains, "Extension methods allow developers to add new methods to the public contract
of an existing CLR type, without having to sub-class it or recompile the original type. Extension
Methods help blend the flexibility of 'duck typing' support popular within dynamic languages today
with the performance and compile-time validation of strongly-typed languages."
Visual
Basic team offering extension methods tutorials (SearchWinDevelopment.com)
Extension methods allow Visual Basic 2008 developers to put custom functionality into types
authored by someone else. Here we link to a six-part Extension Methods tutorial.
On
extension methods in C# and .NET Framework 3.5 (SearchWinDevelopment.com)
Blogger Alex Hoffman's "Adventures in .NET 3.5" offers quite a bit of advice for the C# architect
on working with extensions methods.
New
Visual Studio 2008 language feature: Lambda expressions (Scott Guthrie)
Again, as Guthrie explains, "Lambda Expressions provide a more concise, functional syntax for
writing anonymous methods. They…provide a very compact and type-safe way to write functions that
can be passed as arguments for subsequent evaluation."
New
Visual Studio 2008 language feature: Query syntax (Scott Guthrie)
Once again, Guthrie put it best: "Query syntax is convenient declarative shorthand for expressing
queries using the standard LINQ query operators. It offers a syntax that increases the readability
and clarity of expressing queries in code, and can be easy to read and write correctly….Under the
covers the C# and VB compilers take query syntax expressions and translate them into explicit
method invocation code…"
LINQ and
query expressions (Charlie Calvert)
This post focuses on query expression syntax itself and the underlying method calls that are
created after a query expressions is translated
Using
Distinct and avoiding lambdas (Charlie Calvert)
This article focuses on how C# programmers can use certain query expressions, such as Distinct(),
as a means of avoiding lambda expressions, which, in this author's mind, are difficult to
write.
New
Visual Studio 2008 language feature: Anonymous types (Scott Guthrie)
To paraphrase Guthrie this time, Anonymous types let programmers define CLR types within code,
without establishing a formal class declaration of the type.
Using C# 3.0 from
.NET Framework 2.0 and Using extension
methods in .NET Framework 2.0 projects (Daniel Moth)
Thanks to multi-targeting, programmers can use Visual Studio 2008, and all its features, with older
versions of the .NET Framework. These articles provides an explanation as to what new LINQ features
and implementations in Visual Studio 2008 will, and will not, work when programming in .NET
2.0.
The final three resources in this section of the LINQ Learning Guide focus specifically on using LINQ within Visual Basic 2008.
LINQ and Visual Basic 2008
video series (Microsoft)
These 10 videos cover the basics of LINQ and some of the main LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML
functionality that will be of interest to Visual Basic 2008 programmers.
Visual Basic LINQ syntax in
Visual Studio 2008 (Microsoft)
This Channel 9 video with Amanda Silver and Beth Massi of the VB team focuses specifically on Joins
and Aggregates syntax.
Visual
Basic LINQ hands-on labs for Visual Studio 2008 (Microsoft)
These Microsoft Word documents walk Visual Basic programmers through LINQ features such as the
Standard Query Operator. "[S]ee how these features can be used against in-memory collections,
connected databases, and XML documents," the description reads.
*** Go on to the next section of the LINQ Learning Guide: LINQ Providers
This was first published in February 2008