Module 3: Introduction to LINQ (Material)

Visual Studio 2008
Community Training

By
Mohamed Saleh
mohamedsaleh@live.com
www.jordev.net
www.geeksconnected.com/mohamed

MODULE 3: INTRODUCTION TO LINQ

MODULE 3: INTRODUCTION TO
LINQ

Table of Contents
Official Community Material License 3
Module Overview 4
Introducing LINQ Project 5
LINQ Assemblies 6
LINQ Query Expressions 7
Lab 1: Writing Query Expressions 9
Standard Query Operators 12
Lab 2: Writing Queries Using Extension Methods 13
Conversion Operators 16
Lab 3: Using Conversion Operators 17
Partitioning Operators 21
Lab 4: Using Partitioning Operators 22
LINQ Bridge 26
Lab 5: Using Linq for .NET Framework 2.0 27
Summary 30
References 31

2


Official Community Material License
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, Jordev assumes no responsibility for
errors, omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information herein.
This disclaimer statement, presented on this page, is an integral part of this document. Should this page of the
document, in its electronic or printed formats, be lost, deleted, destroyed or otherwise discarded, this disclaimer
statement applies despite the consequences.
© 2008 Jordev.NET. All rights reserved.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

3


Module Overview

This module introduces you to the new generation of the programmatic data access in
the .NET Framework 3.5. LINQ Project is a new movement in the data access
programming world. It helps the developers to deal with different data shapes into the
programming language directly without the need to learn new API(s) for each data
shape and different type of information.

This module describes the new extensions that makes the LINQ happened, the query
syntax, the standard query operators, and how to use LINQ with the in-memory
collections.

Objectives:
After completing this module, you will be able to:
 Understand what Linq is.
 Understand the Query Expressions and Query Operators.
 Writing queries using extension methods.
 Using the Partitioning and Conversion operators.
 Explain the usage of the new Linq Assemblies.
 Enabling Linq to Objects for .Net Framework 2.0.

4


Introducing LINQ Project

Overview:
In the FoxPro/dBase days the data manipulation operations and queries was integrated with
the programming language itself, and it was supported natively in the language, then the
Client/Server computing separates the data and the programming language, and the object
oriented technology become very mature and richer than before and empowered very much
from the programming language itself.
The complexity of programming happens when dealing with data, and especially these days
we have different kind of data such as RDBMS, XML, file system, etc…
LINQ adds new concepts to the C# and VB Language which allows the programmers to write
SQL-Like query expressions that can execute many operations over much kind of data while
using the object oriented programming style.

LINQ Building Blocks:
The LINQ expressions are enabled because of the marriage between different new features in
the C# 3.0 Language which includes the following:

1. Object Initializers

2. Lambda Expressions

3. Extension Methods

4. Anonymous types

5. Implicit Typing Variables

As we mentioned in the C# 3.0 module, the C# 3.0 features are only related to the compiler
and it will not reflect any new IL instructions.

All of these new features considered as the building blocks of the LINQ, which combines
them together and enable the LINQ.

5


LINQ Assemblies

The following table contains the LINQ assemblies with the main namespaces:
No. Assembly Name Namespaces
1. System.Core.dll System
System.Linq
System.Linq.Expressions
2. System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll System.Data
3. System.Data.Linq.dll System.Data.Linq
System.Data.Linq.Mapping
System.Data.Linq.SqlClient
4. System.Xml.Linq.dll System.Xml.Linq
System.Xml.Schema
System.Xml.XPath

The first assembly System.Core provides extensions methods for IEnumerable<T> and
some classes for query operators in addition to other classes that enable the query expressions.
The second assembly System.Data.DataSetExtensions allows the using of LINQ for
DataSet.
The System.Data.Linq assembly is the implementation of LINQ for SQL Server databases
which contains many classes that represent the tables as entities and provides some attributes
for the tables and columns, in addition to some helpers and methods for the SQL statements.
The System.Xml.Linq is the implementation of LINQ for XML which allows the
programmer to construct Xml documents using LINQ expressions and query it such as any
other data.

6


LINQ Query Expressions

Overview:
Query expressions can be written using declarative query syntax enabled by the C# 3.0
language enhancements. Query expressions can be used to transform data from any Linq-
enabled data sources into different Linq-Enabled data source.

Query:
A query is a set of instructions that describes what data to retrieve from a given data source
(or sources) and what shape and organization the returned data should have. (Ref 2)

Query Expression:
A query expression is a query expressed in query syntax. A query expression is a first-class
language construct. A query expression consists of a set of clauses written in a declarative
syntax similar to SQL or XQuery. Each clause in turn contains one or more C# expressions,
and these expressions may themselves be either a query expression or contain a query
expression. (Ref 2)

Query Expression Syntax:
The following sample shows a simple query expression:
string[] members = {"Samer", "Bill", "Scott", "Bilal"};
var names = from n in members
where n.StartsWith("B")
select n;

7


The names represents the query variable that store the query, the query expression must begin
with from clause and must end with select/group clause. Between the from and select clause
it can contains optional clauses such as where, join, or orderby.

Query Operators:
Query operators are static extension methods that construct the query expressions, the
following statements shows how to write query expressions using the extension methods
directly:
string[] members = { "Samer", "Bill", "Scott", "Bilal" };
var names = members.Where(m => m.StartsWith("B"));

The two samples are identical but the first sample gives more query-style syntax. there are
many different query operators shipped with the Linq, in this module you will do samples
over many basic query operators.

IEnumerable<T> is must:
The var define implicit typing query result, but all the results must be returned in a type that
implements an IEnumerable<T> type.
The following sample reduces the same results as the first sample:
string[] members = {"Samer", "Bill", "Scott", "Bilal"};
IEnumerable<string> names = from n in members
where n.StartsWith("B")
select n;

Query Execution:
The query can be executed immediately when using the ToArray or ToList query operators
and can be done lately - which is the default case - which called deferred query execution or
the lazy execution. The deferred query execution enables the reusability of query even if the
data changed.

8


Lab 1: Writing Query Expressions

After completing this lab, you will be able to:
 Writing Linq Query Expression.
 Using Query Operators.
 Using var and IEnumerable<T> query varaiables.
 Querying In-Memory Collections.

Writing Query Expressions

1. On the File menu in Visual Studio 2008, point to New and then click Project.

2. In the New Project dialog box, select a language, and then select Windows in the
Project Types box.

3. In the Templates box, select Console Application.

4. In the Location box, type the path to where to create the application, and then click
OK.

5. In the Visual Studio code editor as the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace GeeksConnected.Module03Lab01
{
class Customer
{

9


public long ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Company { get; set; }
public Phone phone { get; set; }

public Customer()
{

}
}

class Phone
{
public int CountryCode;
public int AreaCode;
public int phone;

public Phone()
{
}

}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{

List<Customer> custList = new List<Customer>
{
new Customer
{
Name = "Samer", ID = 1, Company = "Microsoft",
phone = new Phone { CountryCode = 001, AreaCode = 6,
phone = 111111 }
},

new Customer
{
Name = "Muhanad", ID = 2, Company = "GeeksConnected",
phone = 111111 }
},

new Customer
{
Name = "Mohamed", ID = 2, Company = "GeeksConnected",
phone = 2324343 }
},

new Customer
{
Name = "Amjad", ID = 2, Company = "GeeksConnected",
phone = 3264843 }
},
new Customer
{
Name = "Bill", ID = 1, Company = "Microsoft",
phone = 875654 }
}
};

//Microsoft Customers List

10


IEnumerable<Customer> MicrosoftCustomers =
from c in custList
where (c.Company == "Microsoft")
select c;

Console.WriteLine("Microsoft Customers");
Console.WriteLine("===================");
foreach (Customer cus in MicrosoftCustomers)
{
Console.WriteLine("ID : {0}",cus.ID);
Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", cus.Name);
Console.WriteLine("====================n");
}
Console.ReadLine();

//GeeksConnected Customers List
var GeeksConnectedCustomers =
from c in custList
where c.Company.StartsWith("Geeks")
select c;

Console.WriteLine("GeeksConnected Customers");
foreach (Customer cus in GeeksConnectedCustomers)
{
Console.WriteLine("ID : {0}", cus.ID);
}
Console.ReadLine();

//Searching by Country Code
IEnumerable<Customer> CustomersByCountryCode =
from c in custList
where (c.phone.CountryCode == 001)
select c;

Console.WriteLine("001 Country Code Customers");
foreach (Customer cus in CustomersByCountryCode)
{
Console.WriteLine("ID : {0}", cus.ID);
}
Console.ReadLine();

}
}
}

6. Click Start on the Debug menu or press F5 to run the code.

11


Standard Query Operators

Enumerable Extension Methods:
Linq shipped with a lot of extension methods which act as the query operators when writing
query expressions.
The System.Linq namespace contains different Linq Extensions under the
System.Linq.Enumerable class, the extension methods can be consumed through the using
directive, and by default the projects in .NET Framework 3.5 are using the System.Linq
namespace.
The following table contains the some commonly used operators:
No. Extension Method Description
1. OrderByDescending Sorting the elements in a descending order.

2. OrderBy Sorting the elements in a Ascending order.
3. Take Returns a specific number of continuous elements from the start of a
sequence of values.
4. Sum Calculate the sum of a group of numeric values.
5. Distinct Returns distinct element from a sequence of values.
6. Count Return the total number of elements from a sequence of elements.
7. First Returns the first element of a sequence of values.

12


Lab 2: Writing Queries Using Extension
Methods

 Writing Queries using Linq Extension Methods.
 Sorting the elements using the OrderByDescending extension method.
 Returning specific elements using Take and First methods.
 Calculating the total number of elements using the Count method.
 Returning Distinct values from a sequence of values.

Writing Queries using extension methods


Project Types box.


4. In the Location box, type the path to where to create the application, and then click OK.


using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

{
class Book
{

13


public string Author { get; set; }
public string Publisher { get; set; }
public int Year { get; set; }
public string Category { get; set; }

public Book()
{
}
}

class Program
{

public static List<Book> GetBooksList()
{
List<Book> BooksList = new List<Book>
{
new Book {ID = 1, Author = "Muhanad", Category = "SharePoint",
Name = "Inside MOSS Customization", Publisher = "GC",
Year = 2008},
new Book {ID = 2, Author = "Mohamed", Category = ".NET",
Name = "Advanced .NET", Publisher = "GC",
Year = 2008},
new Book {ID = 3, Author = "Amjad", Category = "Integration",
Name = "Advanced BizTalk", Publisher = "GC",
Year = 2008},
new Book {ID = 4, Author = "Hikmet", Category = "Windows",
Name = "Windows 2008 Server", Publisher = "GC",
Year = 2008},
new Book {ID = 5, Author = "Ayman", Category = "Inegration",
Name = "BIZTalk Administration", Publisher = "DN",
Year = 2006},
new Book {ID = 6, Author = "Ayman", Category = "SharePoint",
Name = "Programming CAML", Publisher = "DN",
Year = 2005},
new Book {ID = 7, Author = "Bob", Category = ".NET",
Name = "CLR Inside Outside", Publisher = "ORA",
Year = 2005},
new Book {ID = 8, Author = "Ibrahim", Category = "Inegration",
Name = "BIZTalk PipeLines", Publisher = "DHC",
Year = 2005},
new Book {ID = 9, Author = "Adam", Category = ".NET",
Name = "MSIL For Dummies", Publisher = "DHC",
Year = 2006},
new Book {ID = 10, Author = "Salim", Category = ".NET",
Name = "CLR Deep Dive", Publisher = "DN",
Year = 2006},
Name = "Exchange Migration", Publisher = "MS",
Year = 2007},
Name = "WSS Solutions", Publisher = "MS",
Year = 2007},
};

return BooksList;
}

{
List<Book> books = GetBooksList();

//Getting Books Count...
int booksCount = books.Count();
Console.WriteLine("Books Count: {0}", booksCount);

14


Console.ReadKey();

//Order Books Years By Descending...
var BooksList = books.OrderByDescending(b => b.Year);

//Printing the Books By Year
Console.WriteLine("Books By Year");
foreach (Book bk in BooksList)
{
Console.WriteLine("Book Name:{0}", bk.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Book Year:{0}", bk.Year);
Console.WriteLine("=======================n");
}
Console.ReadKey();

//Returnning the first three books
var Bookslst = books
.OrderBy(b => b.Year)
.Take(3);

Console.WriteLine("nnFirst Three Books");
Console.WriteLine("=================n");
foreach (Book bk in Bookslst)
{
Console.WriteLine("Book Name :{0}", bk.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Book Year :{0}", bk.Year);
Console.WriteLine("Book Author:{0}", bk.Author);
}
Console.ReadKey();

//Returnning the Distinct Values of Author
var bks = books
.OrderBy(b => b.Author)
.Select(b => b.Author)
.Distinct();

Console.WriteLine("nnDistinct Authors");
foreach (var bk in bks)
{
Console.WriteLine("Book Author:{0}", bk);
}
Console.ReadKey();

}
}
}


15


Conversion Operators

Linq can convert a query results to different data collections types, as we mentioned before
the default execution behavior of the query is the deferred execution, which execute the query
and retrieve the results while iterating through the sequence of values results.
The following operators aim to convert the results to different collection types, and cause an
immediate execution to the query.

No. Query Operator Description
1. ToArray Returns an array of elements from a sequence of values.

2. ToList Returns a List<T> of elements from a sequence of values.
3. ToDictionary Returns a Dictinory(TKey, TValue) collection type from a sequence
of values.
4. OfType Returns a filtered sequence of elements based on a specific type.

16


Lab 3: Using Conversion Operators

Objectives:
This lab introduces you the query conversion operators which is a set of extension methods on
the Enumerable Class, in addition to enforce immediate execution behavior of the queries.

 Enforce the immediate execution of the queries.
 Converting the query results to Different Collection Types.
 Filtering the query results based on a specific data type.

Using conversion Operators


Project Types box.




using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

17


{
class Book
{

public Book()
{
}
}

class Program
{

{
{
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2007},
Year = 2007},
};

return BooksList;
}

{

18


//Enforcing the query immediate execution
// Using ToList Query Conversion Operator


var bks =
(from b in books
where b.Category == ".NET"
select new {Category = b.Category.ToLower(),
Name = b.Name.ToUpper(),
Author = b.Author.ToUpper()}).ToList();

Console.WriteLine("Books Information");

{
Console.WriteLine("Book Catregory:{0}", bk.Category);
Console.WriteLine("Book Author :{0}", bk.Author);
Console.WriteLine("nn");
}

Console.ReadKey();

//Using ToArray Query Convesion Operator
string[] Authors =
(from b in books
select b.Author).Distinct().ToArray();

Console.WriteLine("Authors List");

foreach (var auth in Authors)
{
Console.WriteLine(auth);
}

Console.ReadKey();

//Using ToDictionary Query Conversion Operator
var bkDic =
(from b in books
select new { b.ID, b.Name }).ToDictionary(bk => bk.ID);

Console.WriteLine("nnnBooks Dictionary");
Console.WriteLine("================n");

for (int i = 1; i < 13; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Book ID :{0}", i);
Console.WriteLine("Book Name:{0}", bkDic[i].Name);
}

Console.ReadKey();

//Using OfType Query Operator
object[] misc = {"CLR Via C#", bkDic[2], bkDic[1], Authors[1],
Authors[2], 12,43, books[0].Name, books[1],
233, "GeeksConnected", books[2].ID};
var strs =
(from s in misc
select s).OfType<string>();

19


Console.WriteLine("Strings List");
Console.WriteLine("============n");
foreach (var s in strs)
{
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
Console.ReadKey();

//Retrieving the Integers.....
var nums =
(from n in misc
select n).OfType<int>();

Console.WriteLine("Numeric List");
Console.WriteLine("============n");
foreach (var n in nums)
{
Console.WriteLine(n);
}
Console.ReadKey();

}
}
}


20


Partitioning Operators

Linq extension methods set contain a group of operators that allows the programmer to
partitioning the results of the query into a specific sequence, such as taking the first n number
of elements in the sequence, skipping n number of elements, and retrieving or skipping a
sequence of values based in specific criteria.

The following table contains the partitioning operators and a description about it.
No. Query Operator Description
1. Take Returns a specific number of continuous elements from the start of a
sequence of values.
2. Skip Bypasses specific number of elements from a sequence of values and
returning the remaining elements.
3. TakeWhile Returns a specific number of elements while a specific condition is
true and returning the remaining elements.
4. SkipWhile Bypasses elements from a sequence of values while a specific
condition is true and returning the remaining elements.

21


Lab 4: Using Partitioning Operators

Objectives:
This lab introduces you the new generic collection type HashSet and its standard operations.

 Use the partitioning query operators.
 Skipping elements based on conditional expression.
 Retrieving elements using Take and TakeWhile operators.

Using Partitioning Operators


Project Types box.




using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

22


{
class Book
{

public Book()
{
}
}

class Program
{

{
{
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2007},
Year = 2007},
};

return BooksList;
}

{

23



//Using Take Operator
var bks =
(from b in books
select b
).Take(3);

Console.WriteLine(".NET Books");
Console.WriteLine("==========n");

{
}

Console.ReadKey();

//Using TakeWhile Operator
var bksLst =
(from b in books
select b
).TakeWhile(b => b.Year == 2008);

Console.WriteLine("2008 Year Books");
Console.WriteLine("===================n");

foreach (var bk in bksLst)
{
}

Console.ReadKey();

//Using SkipWhile Operator
var bksList =
(from b in books
select b
).SkipWhile(b => b.Year == 2008);

Console.WriteLine("Books Information");

foreach (var bk in bksList)
{
Console.WriteLine("n");
}

Console.ReadKey();

24


}
}
}


25


LINQ Bridge

Linq requires the developer to target the .NET Framework 3.5 while developing any Linq-
Enabled Application. All the query operators are implemented in .NET Framework 3.5 which
forces the customer to install the .NET Framework 3.5.
Joseph & Ben Albahari write a reimplementation of all standard query operators which allows
the developers to write Linq to Objects applications into .NET Framework 2.0 by using the
Multi-Targeting Feature of Visual Studio 2008.
LinqBirdge is a free open source project you can download it under the following link:
http://www.albahari.com/nutshell/LinqBridge.zip
And the source code is available under the following link:
http://www.albahari.com/nutshell/LinqBridge.zip

LinqBridge Internals:
The C# 3.0 and .Net Framework 3.5 are designed to work with CLR 2.0 which means that the
generated IL instructions are the same instructions that used in .NET Framework 2.0
Applications.
The compiler looks for the query operators as extension methods which is used as static
methods in the generated IL instructions, the LinqBridge implementation contains the same
query operators implementation which enable the code to target .NET Framework 2.0.

26


Lab 5: Using Linq for .NET Framework 2.0

 Writing Linq-Enabled Applications for .Net Framework 2.0.
 Using the LinqBridge extension.
 Writing Linq to Objects expressions.

Using LinqBridge Extension


Project Types box.

3. Choose the .Net Framework 2.0 in the Target Framework ListBox



6. Add Reference to LinqBridge.dll assembly.


using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

{
class Book
{

27



public Book()
{
}
}

class Program
{

{
{
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2008},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2005},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2006},
Year = 2007},
Year = 2007},
};

return BooksList;
}

{

var bks =

28


from b in books
select b;

Console.WriteLine(".NET Books");
Console.WriteLine("==========n");

{
}

Console.ReadKey();

}
}
}

29


Summary

In this module, you learned how Linq use the new C# 3.0 enhancements together to enable
the query expressions, and you learned how to use the query operators into different query
manners.
This module focus in writing and reading Linq code and querying objects and in-memory data
which allows you to move to the next step in using different Linq implementation such as
Linq to XML, and Linq to SQL.

Here is a summary of what you’ve introduced in this module:
 Writing Query Expressions.
 Writing Queries using extension methods directly.
 Using different query operators.
 Enabling Linq to Objects into .NET Framework 2.0 Applications.

30


References

1. Microsoft Site (http://www.microsoft.com)
2. Microsoft Developer Network (http://msdn.microsoft.com)
3. Scott Guthrie’s Blog (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/)
4. Scott Hanselman’s Blog(http://www.hanselman.com/)
5. Microsoft Developers Evangelists VS 2008 Training Kit.
6. MSDN 101 Linq Samples.

31

Module 3: Introduction to LINQ (Material)

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