Dig into LINQ — and transform the way you work with data.

With LINQ, you can query data from a variety of sources — including databases, objects, and XML files — directly from Microsoft Visual Basic® or C#. Guided by data-access experts who've worked in depth with LINQ and the Microsoft development teams, you'll learn how .NET Framework 4 implements LINQ, and how to exploit it. Clear examples show you how to deliver your own data-access solutions faster and with leaner code.

Discover how to:

• Use LINQ to query databases, object collections, arrays, XML, Microsoft Excel® files, and other sources
• Apply LINQ best practices to build data-enabled .NET applications and services
• Manipulate data in a relational database with ADO.NET Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL
• Read, write, and manage XML content more efficiently with LINQ to XML
• Extend LINQ to support additional data sources by creating custom operators and providers
• Examine other implementations, such as LINQ to SharePoint®
• Use LINQ within the data, business, and service layers of a distributed application
• Get code samples on the Web