Microsoft Silverlight Books

Good book to start on Linq

I used it to learn about Linq and thought it was well organized and easy to understand. (FYI- Microsoft website also has good videos and tutorials on LINQ.)

Aseiu P.
06 April, 2010

Outstanding

After 15 years in the field of computer programming, I can say this is quite simply one of the finest technology books I have ever read. First-time author Joe Rattz is laser-like in his focus on what matters and what doesn't. He knows his audience (intermediate-to-advanced .NET programmers) and writes directly to us. Instructional material is helpful and concise; examples are on-point; material develops smoothly from introductory concepts to quite advanced ones; and to top it off, the writing is engaging, nicely seasoned throughout with occasional dry wit. It is the first technical manual ever that I literally couldn't put down; I read the whole thing in two days. Kudos, Joe!

Robert K. Nickel
16 January, 2010

Very well written & Organized

The book is organized into 5 very useful partitions and progresses thru each with an increasing level of complexity as it goes. The author includes just enough of a personal touch to keep it interesting, while the description of what is going on behind the scenes is very precise. The pace and progress of the lessons allow going thru each section without falling asleep. I will keep this as an excellent reference!!

Scott E. Smith
31 December, 2009

Lacks spice

The books covers many topics regarding linq in great detail. The details makes it a bit "dry". If you're new to linq and want a book to read and know more take a more spicier book.


Alon
26 October, 2009

What an amazing book

It provides a solid foundation for Linq before diving into the topics. The second chapter provides so much background about the new features in .net 3.*. Lambda expressions really clicked for me after reading this book.

Ravi
20 August, 2009

Excellent Coverage

I needed to get a book on C# that covered 3.5. As an impulse, I bought this book with it. A few months later I picked it up and started reading it. All I can say is, I wished I had read it sooner. The power of LINQ is amazing! LINQ is not trivial and requires you to think about data in new ways. But the author does a good job of walking you through all the parts that make up LINQ and explaining how they work together. Every aspect of LINQ is covered along with lots of code examples to illustrate how to use it. If you get only one book on LINQ, get this one. You won't be sorry.



Randall Woodman
26 June, 2009

Pro LINQ - Language Integrated Query in C#

The book is broken up into a number of "Parts" being LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, LINQ to Dataset and LINQ to SQL, but it does provide a some early chapters to ease into general .NET 3.5 language enhancements in preparation for many of the code examples that follow.
Beyond the initial chapters this book should be seen as a reference book for developers to find that certain operator. Each summary of an operator contains a description, outline of signatures (including any overloads), specific exceptions thrown and when and examples of how to call them against a sample collection used throughout the book. If you are the sort of person who learns through a lot of code samples then this is the book for you.
In summary this is book I would recommend as a reference book and the key comment that turned the light bulb on for me was that LINQ could be seen as a "Data Iteration Engine". So next time you code a foreach statement have a think about whether LINQ is a better option.
The down sides:
· firstly through no fault of the author is that LINQ to SQL is on the way out so a large section of the book will be of little value in the near future.
· secondly, the code samples do get a little repetitive.


Kirk Barrett
13 May, 2009

Kindle Only Comments

This review is for the Kindle 2 edition of the book. I bought this version to use as a handy reference while on the road. I found the format of Kindle edition was to hard to read make it effective. Most of the formated pictures are too small to reference even when in zoom mode. I have purchased the hard cover edition and will purchase a pdf version of the book for travel. I returned the Kindle version of the book.

E. E. Huth
27 April, 2009

It has Arrested Development references.

I've been reading this book for a while now. All the other reviews are spot on - it's worth the money if you've got the gumption to learn LINQ. He wisely chooses to expose LINQ to SQL last. Smart move. He also covers lambda expressions and other language updates sufficiently in earlier chapters. Personally, I prefer Lambda Expressions over LINQ, but that's all up to taste. I would highly recommend this book.

Also, it has tons of Arrested Development references, which I found pretty funny - but they're buried in more relevant information.

S. Anderson
27 April, 2009

Lots of good easy code examples, but beware

LINQ to SQL is dead. It's being replaced by something else that's more complicated. So the chapters that conver this topic are useless, unless you plan on spending time learning about something you'll never use.

The chapters on LINQ to XML were very useful. I mostly just looked at the code examples to quickly learn the syntax for creating, updating, and querying XML.

Larry Hargis
24 April, 2009

Probably the best book on the subject

I started working with LINQ last year and noticed that most of the documentation would cover the basics and nothing else. This book has tons of code samples and answered pretty much every single question and doubt I had about the subject.

The author did a tremendous job at collecting information and wrote real-world examples, and nothing could make more sense when it comes to LINQ. I'm really happy with the book and I highly recommend it.

King Reis
21 April, 2009

Most Exciting Book I Have Read in Years

As soon as I opened the book up I was hooked. I haven't finished the book as I am going through it slowly, but let me tell you something. I am an avid read of programmer books, it has been a long time since I was this excited about a new technology as I am about LINQ.

I finally got VS 2008 installed at work and home, and I have been loving it. Every time Microsoft does something great, they always seem to out do themselves with even better techniology. Quite frankly it is kinda hard to just keep up as a developer at times. It sometimes is hard to not feel overwhelmed, but believe me, this technology is worth knowing.

The author elucidates LINQ in such a way, he has earned my respect as one of the finest authors around. Not to mention Apress is the BEST publisher of programming books bar none.

My book shelf is mostly Apress, with a few Microsoft books and I also love the "In a Nutshell", especially C# 3.0 In a Nutshell.

Anyhow, get on the band wagon if you haven't already and trust me, this author will inspire you. He has inspired me, I am excited about LINQ.

Happy coding!

John Grove
09 January, 2009

Not as advanced as I hoped

While I found this book to be a very good introduction to linq there were a couple of things that bothered me.

The first was there was quite a large amount of filler in that the same code was repeated over and over, many times twice on the same page. The output of this code was also repeated over and over (anyone else get sick of seeing a list of presidents?). In the case of similar linq functions (eg OrderBy and OrderByDesc), instead of creating one section describing both, the first section was pretty much duplicated along with another code example and another list of presidents. I found myself flicking through page after page of similar text.

The second thing that I didn't like was that it is called Pro Linq but doesn't really go into anything advanced. At the end of the book I didn't know how to extend linq by adding my own extension methods, I know that IQueryable exists but not much more than that and I know very little about expressions or how to use them. I think if the filler was removed there would have been room for these more advanced topics.

I would still say it's worth reading and I don't regret buying it but I think it should be called "begineers guide to linq" instead of "Pro Linq". The reason I purchased it was because I thought it would be a more advanced book.

Mr. Michael D. Culley
26 December, 2008

Great Book!!!

this book is a great referece for those who want to learn the new features in .net 3.5. it is not for the beginner programmer as it uses some advancced techniques that could be confusing. It is more of a reference book than a learning book, overall it is great and covers all areas of LINQ.

David Farrugia
03 October, 2008

Comprehensive and well explained

After being disappointed by other books on ASP.NET was leery in purchasing another. Wishing to learn about LINQ I finally gave in and ordered this one. I'm pleasantly surprised and delighted that it actually teaches you something other than just touting the benefits versus older technology. It is so complete as opposed to other books that give you a dip in the shallow end and leave you to wonder what else there is out there.

Excellent book. Well worth the price. Get it.

M. Boughter
25 September, 2008

Learn LINQ = Buy this book

I am always looking for new tools to make my job as a developer easier, more efficient, allow me to write code that is more easily maintained and just make things more exciting. The problem that comes with learning these new tools (such as LINQ) is finding the time to learn them to the point that they are useful. This style of this book made it very easy to read with excellent code examples, providing me with the knowledge to get started using LINQ in my current project within a week of reading. Lastly, I was able to contact the author (with a timely response) about a question I had using LINQ in my project. Joe was friendly in his response and very approachable. Highly recommended!

James S. Brown
08 August, 2008

Great book, great Kindle conversion

This is a very comprehensive and well structured LINQ learning guide. It can be used as a structured tutorial or as a reference guide, as definitions and sample code for each method call are complete.

What is really nice is that this book works well in eBook (Kindle) format. I am usually reluctant to buy technical books with code listings for the Kindle, but all the listings in the text are zoomable images and easy to read in the landscape rendition.

Matt Marshall
08 August, 2008

Bought three books on LINQ -this one is the best!

I'm an intermediate level C# programmer (I think) and have been using ADO.net with SQL-Server to build a database application for a client. When I read about LINQ earlier this year, it sounded like something too good to be true. I started with a couple of other books, but found practical explanations of getting things to work lacking. I get the impression, the authors are too far advanced and just assume we have fairly expert knowledge of some of the nuts and bolts things that are elementary to them, so they don't explain these things.
Joseph Rattz's book does not assume we know how to do a lot of this stuff. Rather he explains in detail, how to get LINQ up and running, and to actually get a query completed. I was able within an hour to run SQL Metal to generate an entity class (basically a map from SQL Server to corresponding data objects), and run some of the example queries in the book. That said, this is not a lightweight book for someone new to programming. It's just that he does an excellent job explaining a complex subject. It gets into advanced topics on LINQ and requires some knowledge of C#. If you plan to use this to work with SQL Server, you should also have some experience with that also.
Summing up, there is just something about Mr. Rattz's writing style that makes this book easy to read and understand. I find I'm actually enjoying reading this book, and I certainly can't say that about most technical books I study.


Thomas A. McEwen
06 August, 2008

Very Impressed

I actually met Joe in a Books-A-Million in Montgomery, Alabama... He is a very nice guy too! The book is chock full of code, it is concise and it is worth every penny and then some. If you want to learn about how to use LINQ effectively, congratulations, you just found your book.

J. Sexton
04 July, 2008

Excellent LINQ Resource

Once I had heard of LINQ I had spent a lot of time reading through the MSDN docs, but I wanted more information about it. Pro LINQ was the answer. It gave a very thorough run-down of each of the various technologies involved with LINQ as well as a breadth of useful examples to illustrate the points that were made. In addition I thought that the book had a nice progression of topics that left you wanting to continue on to the next chapter. LINQ is an awesome technology, and I feel that this book is a great tool to add to your arsenal to help better utilize it to its fullest capabilities. This book was definitely written from a developer's standpoint, but I didn't feel that it threw too much at you. I would highly recommend this book.

Levi Wilson
02 July, 2008

Best book to learn LinQ and new C# 3.0 features

This book is incredible at explaining the new LinQ functionality and since many of the enhancements made to C# were made to accomadate LinQ, it also does an excellent job at explaining the new language enhancements in a concise fashion. Highly recommend this book.

M. Alonso
01 June, 2008

Outstanding

It's very rare to find a book on any programming topic that works as both an introduction to the subject as well as a reference for seasoned users. Joseph Rattz's book should be the first stop for anyone hoping to learn about LINQ. The examples given make what could have been a potentially massive learning curve even for experienced ADO.Net users a lot smoother.

Seth Patrich
30 May, 2008

Good book - but XML heavy

Reading this book you can get the illusion that LINQ is just about XML. There is so much more - pretend that LINQ has noting to do with XML and see how it can change your project delivery!

LINQ in Action This is the book that really shows what LINQ can do. It is VERY easy to read and get upto speed using this book - its a must have. Once you have mastered this book then look at others.

Douggy Fresh
25 May, 2008

Must have book!

No doubt about it. If you are learning/using LINQ, this is THE book to have. Author did an excellent job explaining the material and giving numerous examples, that work, about the material. Had to mention the "that work" part as I get so frustrated when I buy a book and the examples do not work. I could tell this book was a "labor of love" and he didn't just crank out a book to make $.

Keith S. Safford
08 May, 2008

Well thought out

This book is very well thought out. The author helps you understand some subtleties of relational algebra (without really saying it) and helps you think like a LINQ head. It's a different way of doing things, but he shows that if you get a basic understanding of a handful of concepts you can grow it from there.

awesome book!

Sam De La Garza
06 May, 2008

Very good book with a very bad index and no free PDF

Microsoft must be under new management, we are getting a slew of new, truly useful tools that are making pretty big strides forward for faster more enjoyable C# development and ease of maintenance. The latest technologies seem well worth taking the time to master. I find the combination of LINQ and the Sync framework couldn't have come at a better time. While the book mentions that LINQ to SQL only supports SQL Server, that is no longer true as you can also use (at least) MS SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 (which is required for the Sync Framework). You can't use the visual object relational designer with SSCE but the book documents SQLMetal, and you can use that to create your context.

Overall I found this to be a very good book but it has a few flaws. If like me you are interested in LINQ for a current or upcoming database project here is what I would suggest. First don't start with this book, finish with it. Start with the ten excellent screencasts by Mike Taulty. Then read this book. Your reading will go much faster and you'll get a satisfyingly sated feeling. The author will probably hate me for saying this, but if you already know SQL or ADO.NET 2.0, I would suggest reading Chapters 1-3, then skim 4 and 5 just to get an overview of the operators available. Then read part 5 (Chapters 12-18) on LINQ to SQL. After you digest that I would suggest whichever topics interest you the most, then I would finish with a more thorough read of Chapters 4 and 5 on Deferred and Nondeffered operators, which in my mind are really a thoroughly documented reference section.

The reason the author will hate that, is he doesn't want readers to use LINQ for just database purposes, and he states that many times in the book. In fact, I think that is why he put the LINQ to SQL section at the end. However, he seems to have made a significant effort to make any part readable on its own, so I see no problem with skipping to the end so early.

The book doesn't really cover data binding, but there is a lot of good information on that available on the internet (the above mentioned screencasts show some of them, and an overly long video on Channel 9 with Young Joo from August 2007 shows even more).

I also have a few nit-picky things that drove me crazy. The most significant one being the amount of repetition and unedited console output. I was also none too happy that the author didn't mention that the Visual Studio Command prompt was under the START menu not an IDE menu. But then again without the author I wouldn't even have known there was a Visual Studio 2008 command prompt.

The weakest part of the book is the index, it is downright anemic. In the several weeks since I've finised the book the index has NEVER helped me find things I remember reading. If you find items of interest you better pencil them into the back cover if you want to find them again later. If one book ever needed a free PDF, this one is it, but they charge $10 for it. Maybe that is why they made the index so bad, to encourage you to fork over another $10.

That said, I also found a good half-dozen or so gems in the book that saved me significant time. Now I could tell you what those are but I think you should buy the book to find out.


Tod Gentille
16 April, 2008

Really good book and publisher

I agree with all of the above positive reviews. Excellent book. I just wanted to comment on the publisher. This is my 3rd book(my other two were a book on WPF and C++/.Net) published by Apress and they have all been very good. I don't know if that is just dumb luck but they do an excellent job.

S. Trinh
14 March, 2008

Not bad

This is a great book for learning LINQ. Lots of code examples, fairly exhaustive and does well at explaining concepts. However, the first chapter must have been given special attention knowing it would be the sales pitch for the book. The rest of the book falls into a more rushed fashion, evidenced by typos (mostly in code), and sometimes condescending tone. Also, if there are two extension methods with the same signature, and one has the word Descending tacked on the end, please don't take another four pages to describe its usage. LINQ to Entities is not covered at all, and they don't claim it is, just a heads up to the potential buyer. All that said, this is overall a great book on the subject, but it could use a little polishing.

Judson White
08 March, 2008

Great job Joe

As I understand it, this was Joe's first book, and apparently no one told him that he did WAY too much work.

I liked the chapter on the improvements to 2008, and I liked the overall message that was communicated in this book which was that these are not just simple changes to the language, these are fundamental changes, which will shift the way that programming in C# is done.

Anyway, great job Joe, you could have produced half to three fourths of what you did, and I would still have given you a 5 star rating.

Terrill D. Snyder
06 March, 2008

A page turner - with IEnumerable's!

Very good book. I opened the Amazon box and sat down and read 1/5 of it in one sitting (which was definitely not my intention). A real page turner.

Great stuff, well organized and thought out. Good both for reading front to back and for random access for reference purposes.

I particularly enjoyed the second chapter which really explains the new language features in C# and how they tie together in order to support LINQ.

I'd definitely recommend this book to any C# developer and already have to my coworkers.

Matthew Eland
20 February, 2008

excellent reference

I really like this book. If you want to get the taste of LINQ, this is a good book.

Ruben Parrilla
19 February, 2008

Exceptional

This book is really exceptional, first of all it leave the topic LINQ to SQL at the end of the book, because it focus primarly on the base concept of LINQ to object and then it moves to the linq to xml, dataset, sql etc.

The book is written with simple language, and it cover a lot of thing about LINQ.

What I miss more is a section on "how to write your own linq provider" that would be very useful.


Ricci Gian Maria
11 February, 2008

Excellent structured book on LINQ

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.


Paschal L
01 February, 2008

Excellent topic coverage - fundamentals through tips

I've been very impressed with the scope of this book and Joseph Rattz' writing style. I think he really gets his message across to his audience effectively and the text is very approachable. This is definitely a 'Pro' level book as he doesn't waste time explaining unrelated programming concepts - he assumes you understand those already.

He starts out looking at Linq and how it applies to objects, how this applies to XML and then Linq-to-Sql. In the course of this, he looks at fundamental things like how the execution actually works at runtime and shows you how to examine this on your own in very nice detail. He also takes time to explain things like tracking down the sql that is being generated (with respect to Linq-to-Sql).

Excellent book - it definitely earns a spot on my bookshelf.

S. Hebert
11 January, 2008

LINQ: More than 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.

J. Pease
07 January, 2008

Great book. I bought two copies

Well written book. Tips he gives in the first chapters are worth the price of the book alone. I just bought another copy so I have one at work and at home. I am constantly going to the book and finding the sample code I need. Very deep examples and explanations on everything. He never assumes you know something so he explains everything in detail sometimes more than once.

M. Washington
07 January, 2008

Code, Code, and then More Code... Excellent

This book claims to be about code, code, and then more code. I completely agree with the author's claim, it is code from front to back.

The book covers every feature of Linq in great detail, but one of my favorite parts of the book is chapter on the C# 3.0 Language features and other parts of the book that show how to take advantage of the Linq language features in everyday application code.

The author goes into great detail in every part of the of the book. The author also has a great companion site that is being updated with the latest new features coming out, like LINQ to XSD.

The accompanying code is very usable and well organized.

The only thing lacking would not be a legitimate complaint, since the authors claim code level detail and not architectural level guidance, but I will mention it anyway. I would have like to have seen more guidance on architecture and how Linq fits into the big picture. That is not covered, but like I said, they didn't claim to, so I can't ding them. The point of the comment.... 2nd edition ...hint, hint.....

If you want to get into the guts of Linq, this book is definitely for you. I highly recommend it for every .NET 3.5 programmer.


T. Anderson
01 January, 2008

Excellent

Very detailed and comprehensive book. The author did a great job of introducing LINQ where a beginner or advanced developer could easily understand. This is not a book that will collect dust on your shelf after reading. Personally this book will remain on my desk for quite some time.

Denny Ferrassoli
22 December, 2007

A great book on LINQ

This book provides a *very* comprehensive treatment of LINQ. It establishes the background and foundation for LINQ, and then describes in effective detail and with sound examples, the different facilities and uses for LINQ. I heartily recommend this book for anyone getting into the world of LINQ.

T Kent
21 December, 2007

This is The Best Book on MS LINQ out there

I can't believe that this book was degraded, and also was given a star by a reviewer who pretend to know everything about LINQ. This is the best book out there for any serious developer who want to learn about this new technology. the book is well structured and was written in a way that beginners as well as experienced developers can get up to speed very quickly. I'd like to thank the author for doing such a marvelous work on this book.

Gregory J. Fequiere
16 December, 2007

Great Book!

This book is simply put, great! It begins by teaching you LINQ, through various code samples, continues with showing C# 3.0 enhancements, and then speaks about LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, LINQ to Dataset, and, finally, LINQ to SQL. Many code snippets and much insructive text should assist anybody, from novice to beginner, master LINQ in all its flavors. The book's title "Pro" is perfectly justified by the content.

Dimitris-Ilias Gkanatsios
15 December, 2007

What to choose...

I don't know what book to buy: LINQ in Action or Pro LINQ. Please give me a piece of advice.

Aleksandr Sidorov
14 December, 2007

Best book on LINQ so far

LINQ is one of the coolest ideas to come out of MS in the past few years. Its tight integration with Visual Studio 2008 makes data access more intuitive and we can FINALLY drop the "SQL as strings" syntax in favor of something that can actually be validated at compile time instead of "blowing up" at run-time.

I've spent a fair amount of time researching LINQ and even played with it somewhat. This book would be great for those who at least know the basics of LINQ and what its purpose is. I honestly can't think of a topic about LINQ that was not addressed in some detail in this book. The writing was complete with lots of examples to illustrate the points. An earlier reviewer has said they "stopped at chapter 4" because of the lack of detailed query language syntax descriptions BUT I don't understand because there is an exhaustive definition of the language in chapter 2. I think their 1 star review was unfair and borderline malicious.

Until something comes along better, this would be my pick for the best LINQ book on the market.

B. Hodson
14 December, 2007