Introduction to LINQ

Chapter 11
 Introduction
• Large amounts of data are often stored in a database—an
organized collection of data.
• A database management system (DBMS) provides
mechanisms for storing, organizing, retrieving and
modifying data contained in the database.
• Today’s most popular database systems are relational
databases.
• A language called Structured Query Language (SQL) is an
international standard used with relational databases to
perform queries (that is, to request information that satisfies
given criteria) and to manipulate data.

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 Introduction
• For years, programs that accessed a relational database
passed SQL queries as Strings to the database
management system then processed the results.
• Microsoft developed LINQ (Language Integrated Query) to
enable you to write query expressions similar to SQL
queries that retrieve information from a wide variety of data
sources—not just relational databases—using a common
syntax that is built into Visual Basic.

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 Introduction

• We use LINQ to Objects to query the contents of arrays,

selecting elements that satisfy a set of conditions—this is
known as filtering.
• We also use LINQ to Objects to perform common array
manipulations such as sorting an array.
• Figure 11.1 shows the types of LINQ queries.

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© 1992-2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• Primitive types are the basic type of data
– Byte, short, int, long, float, double, boolean, char
– Primitive variables store primitive values.
• LINQ allows you to look at collections of data, extract
information and manipulate data.

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• Example:

Dim values() As Integer = {2,9,5,0,3,7,1,4,8,6}

Dim filtered =
From value In values
where (value > 4)
Select value

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• Our first LINQ query begins with a From clause which specifies
a range variable (value) and the data source to query (the array
values).
• The range variable represents each item in the data source, much
like the control variable in a For Each…Next statement.
• If the condition in the Where clause evaluates to True, the
element is selected—that is, it’s included in the collection of
Integers that represents the query results.
• Here, the Integers in the array are included only if they’re
greater than 4.

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• For each item in the data source, the Select clause
determines what value appears in the results.
• In this case, it’s the Integer that the range variable
currently represents.
• The Select clause is usually placed at the end of the query
for clarity, though it may be placed after the From clause
and before other clauses, or omitted.
• If omitted, the range variable is implicitly selected.
• The Select clause can transform the selected items—for
example, Select value * 2 in this example would have
multiplied each selected value in the result by 2.

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• You can use a For Each…Next statement to
iterate over the results of any LINQ query.

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• Sorting LINQ Query Results
– The LINQ query in the above example selects the elements of the array
values and returns an IEnumerable object containing a sorted
copy of the elements.

Dim values() As Integer = {2,9,5,0,3,7,1,4,8,6}

Dim sorted =
From value In values
Order By value
Select value

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 Querying an Array of Primitive-Type
Elements Using LINQ
• The Order By clause sorts the query results in ascending order.
• You can use the Descending modifier in the Order By clause
to sort query results in descending order.
• An Ascending modifier also exists but is rarely used, because
it’s the default.
• You can use the Order By clause only for values that can be
compared to one another.
• The Order By clause supports values of any type that
implements the interface IComparable, such as the
primitive numeric types and String.
• Such types provide a CompareTo method.
 Querying an Array of Reference-Type
Elements Using LINQ
 LINQ is not limited to querying arrays of primitive
types.
 It can be used with most data types.
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
 Querying an Array of Reference-Type
Elements Using LINQ
 When you type the name of an IEnumerable object (such
as an array or the result of a LINQ query) then type the dot
(.) separator, the list of the methods and properties that can
be used with that object are shown.
 Some of the methods are so-called extension methods.
 For example, if you have an array of Doubles called
numbers and you want to calculate the average of its
values, you can simply call the Average extension
method, as in numbers.Average().
 Some of IEnumerable’s 45 extension methods are

shown in Fig. 11.5.

 Creating Objects of Anonymous Types

◦ Example:

Dim names=
From Employee In employees
Select Employee.firstName, Employee.lastName
 Creating Objects of Anonymous Types

 The LINQ query in this example selects only the FirstName

and LastName from each Employee object.
 You can select portions of matching objects by specifying the
properties to select in a comma-separated list.
 Only the selected instance can be accessed when iterating over
the query results.
 When you select a portion of an object’s instance, the
compiler creates a new class containing those instance—
FirstName and LastName in this example—and the methods
that are inherited by all classes from class Object
 The new class does not have a name and cannot be used by
you to create new objects—such classes are called anonymous
types.
 Deferred Execution and Transforming
Query Results
• LINQ uses a technique called deferred execution
—a query executes only when you iterate over
the results, not when the query is defined.
• This allows you to create a query once and
execute it many times.
• If you make any changes to the data in a LINQ
query’s data source, the next time you iterate
over the query’s results, the query will process
the current data in the data source.
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 Deferred Execution and Transforming
Query Results
• Figure 11.7 filters an array of Strings by
searching for those that begin with "r".
• Initially the array (lines 8–9) contains two such
Strings.
• Later in the program we modify the array then
reexecute the LINQ query to demonstrate deferred
execution.
• This example also demonstrates how to transform
the items that match the Where clause—in this
case, each matching String is converted to
uppercase in the query result.
© 1992-2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
© 1992-2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
© 1992-2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.