LINQ

LINQ stands for Language-Integrated Query. Basically LINQ address the current database development model in the context of Object Oriented Programming Model. If some one wants to develop database application on .Net platform the very simple approach he uses ADO.Net. ADO.Net is serving as middle ware in application and provides complete object oriented wrapper around the database SQL.So developer must have good knowledge of object oriented concept as well as SQL to develop an application. But incase of Linq SQL statements are become part of the C# and VB.Net code so there are less chance of mistake.

LINQ enables developers to query data sources using a query like syntax with both C# and VB.NET. Using LINQ we can query any database and collection.

LINQ PROVIDER

1.                LINQ to Objects

It provides the facility to query any kind of C# in-memory objects, like as arrays, lists, generic list and other collection types.LINQ to object query returns IEnumerable collection. It provides a new approach to query collection with powerful filtering, ordering and grouping capablities with minimum code.

2.                LINQ to Ado.Net

LINQ to ADO.NET includes different flavors of LINQ to query data from different databases like as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and others. It has following flavours

1.                LINQ to SQL

It is specifically designed for working with Sql Server database. It provides run-time infrastructure for managing relational data as objects. It also supports transactions, views and stored procedures. It is an object-relational mapping (ORM) framework that allow 1-1 mapping of Sql Server database to .net classes. In this mapping the classes that match the database table are created automatically from the database itself and we can use these classes immediately.

2.                LINQ to DataSet

It is an easy and faster way to query data cached in a DataSet object. It also allow LINQ to query over any database that can be query with Ado.Net.

3.                LINQ to Entities

In many ways it is very similar to LINQ to SQL. It uses a conceptual Entity Data Model (EDM). The ADO.NET Entity Framework has been improved in .NET framework 4.0 to query any database like Sql Server, Oracle, MySql, DB2 and many more.

3.                LINQ to XML

It provides an improved XML programming interface. Using this we can query, modify xml document and also save document after modification. System.Xml.Linq namespace contains classes for LINQ to XML.

4.                PLINQ (Parallel LINQ)

PLINQ was introduced in .Net framework 4.0. It extends LINQ to Objects with a new parallel programming library. Using this, we can break/split up a query to execute simultaneously/parallel on different processors.