Book Review: Linq Quickly by N Satheesh Kumar

This books title does not lie, it is LINQ and it is quickly. This book is an excellent introduction into the world of LINQ and also a great reference once you get your feet wet.

The start of the book gives you a brief introduction into what LINQ is and also an introduction into the new features in C# 3.0. It covers things like anonyms types, object initializers, collection initializers, partial methods, implicitly typed local variables, extension methods, lambda expressions,  query expressions and also a small intro to expression trees.

Then it covers LINQ to Objects, which gives you a good idea on how to use LINQ over your in memory objects, including arrays, collections, string and even text files. It shows you just how easy it is to do things that in the past would have been a lot harder to complete.

Next up is LINQ to XML, this is a great introduction to this subject, it covers a great deal of information in regards to all the new LINQ to XML classes, how to create/update/delete XML documents using these new classes and methods. You are also shown the power you now have when you are querying XML and how easy it just is.

The LINQ to SQL chapter is also an excellent reference if you would like to get your feet wet but would not like to be overwhelmed with information. There are plenty of good examples on how to begin using LINQ to SQL and the code samples provided make this very easy. It covers everything from Data Context, Attributes, Relationships, querying, data manipulation, using stored procedures and also all the other common query operators that you would use. There is also a chapter on LINQ to Datasets but as I never use datasets this was something I briefly skimmed over and did not digest.

Finally the book provides a good chapter on Standard Query Operators, this is an excellent post reference once you are already in the world of LINQ, it is good to able to flick to be back, find what you need and see the function prototypes and even a code sample on how to use it. I still sometimes will flick to this part of the book to quickly reference things when I forget :P.

All in all this was an excellent book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to start out with LINQ but would like to get a quick introduction and be on their way to actually using it. This book provides just that and more


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