LINQ: Language Integrated Query: Hands-On Lab
LINQ: Language Integrated Query: Hands-On Lab
LINQ: Language Integrated Query: Hands-On Lab
Hands-on Lab
November 2007
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Contents
LAB 1: LINQ PROJECT: UNIFIED LANGUAGE FEATURES FOR OBJECT AND RELATIONAL QUERIES.......1
Lab Objective....................................................................................................................................................... 1
Exercise 1 –LINQ for In-Memory Collections........................................................................................................ 2
Task 1 – Creating the “LINQ Overview” Solution............................................................................................. 2
Task 2 – Querying a Generic List of Integers................................................................................................... 2
Task 3 – Querying Structured Types................................................................................................................ 4
Exercise 2 – LINQ to XML: LINQ for XML documents.......................................................................................... 6
Task 1 – Adding LINQ to XML Support............................................................................................................ 6
Task 2 – Querying by Reading in an XML File................................................................................................. 6
Task 3 – Querying an XML File........................................................................................................................ 7
Task 4 – Transforming XML Output................................................................................................................. 8
Exercise 3 – LINQ to DataSet: LINQ for DataSet Objects....................................................................................9
Task 1 – Adding DataSet Support.................................................................................................................... 9
Task 2 – Creating a DataSet – Add Designer File.......................................................................................... 10
Task 3 – Creating a DataSet – Using the Designer........................................................................................10
Task 4 – Querying a DataSet......................................................................................................................... 10
Exercise 4 – LINQ to SQL: LINQ for Connected Databases..............................................................................11
Task 1 – Adding LINQ to SQL Support.......................................................................................................... 12
Task 2 – Creating Object Mapping – Creating an Object and Providing Attributes........................................12
Task 3 – Creating Object Mapping – Using the Designer – Add Designer File..............................................13
Task 4 – Creating Object Mapping – Using the Designer – Create the Object View......................................13
Task 5 – Querying using Expressions............................................................................................................ 14
Task 6 – Modifying Database Data................................................................................................................ 15
Task 7 – Calling Stored Procedures............................................................................................................... 17
Task 8 – Expanding Query Expressions........................................................................................................ 17
Exercise 5 – Understanding the Standard Query Operators [Optional]..............................................................19
Task 1 – Querying using the Standard Query Operators...............................................................................19
Task 2 – Working with the Select Operator.................................................................................................... 21
Task 3 – Working with the Where Operator................................................................................................... 22
Task 4 – Working with the Count Operator.................................................................................................... 23
Task 5 – Working with the Min, Max, Sum, and Average Operators..............................................................24
Task 6 – Working with the All and Any operators...........................................................................................25
Task 7 – Working with the ToArray and ToList Operators..............................................................................26
Lab Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 28
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Lab 1: LINQ Project: Unified Language Features for Object and
Relational Queries
This lab provides an introduction to the LINQ Project. The language integrated query framework for
.NET (“LINQ”) is a set of language extensions to C# and Visual Basic and a unified programming model
that extends the .NET Framework to offer integrated querying for objects, databases, and XML.
In this lab, you will see how LINQ features can be used against in-memory collections, XML
documents, and connected databases. The lab ends with an optional exercise that looks at the various
standard query operators available for data manipulation and extraction.
This lab makes extensive use of new language features provided in C# 3.0. When first introduced they
are pointed out; however for a more in depth understanding of how these features work, refer to the C#
3.0 Language Specification Hands On Lab.
Lab Objective
Estimated time to complete this lab: 60 minutes
The objective of this lab is to provide a clear understanding of the LINQ project. You will see how data
manipulation can occur on objects in memory, XML files, datasets, and relational databases. The new
LINQ APIs benefit from IntelliSense™ and full compile-time checking without resorting to string-based
queries. This lab touches on basic LINQ technologies, along with database-specific LINQ to SQL, XML-
specific LINQ to XML, and dataset-specific LINQ to DataSets. A brief look at query operators is also
included.
This lab uses the Northwind database and consists of the following exercises:
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Exercise 1 –LINQ for In-Memory Collections
In this exercise, you learn how to query over object sequences. Any collection supporting the
System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable interface or the generic interface
IEnumerable<T> is considered a sequence and can be operated on using the new LINQ standard
query operators. Standard query operators allow programmers to construct queries including
projections that create new types on the fly. This goes hand-in-hand with type inference, a new feature
that allows local variables to be automatically typed by their initialization expression.
Notice that the left-hand side of the assignment does not explicitly mention a
type; rather it uses the new keyword var. This is possible due to one of the new
features of the C# 3.0 language, local variable type inference. This feature allows the
type of a local variable to be inferred by the compiler. In this case, the right-hand
side creates an object of type Int32[]; therefore the compiler infers the type of the
numbers variable to be Int32[]. This also allows a type name to be specified only
once in an initialization expression.
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3. Add the following code to query the collection for even numbers
In this step the right-hand side of the assignment is a query expression, another
language extension introduced by the LINQ project. As in the previous step, type
inference is being used here to simplify the code. The return type from a query may
not be immediately obvious. This example returns
System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<Int32>; move the mouse over the
evenNumbers variable to see the type in Quick Info. Indeed, sometimes there will be
no way to specify the type when they are created as anonymous types (which are
tuple types automatically inferred and created from object initalizers). Type
inference provides a simple solution to this problem.
Console.WriteLine("Result:");
foreach (var val in evenNumbers)
Console.WriteLine(val);
}
Notice that the foreach statement has been extended to use type inference as
well.
5. Finally, add a call to the NumQuery method from the Main method:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
NumQuery();
}
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6. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. A console window appears. As expected all even
numbers are displayed (the numbers 4, 16, and 36 appear in the console output).
7. Press any key to terminate the application.
2. Within the Program class declaration, create the following new method, which creates a list of
customers (taken from the Northwind database):
static void Main(string[] args)
{
NumQuery();
}
static IEnumerable<Customer> CreateCustomers()
{
return new List<Customer>
{
new Customer { CustomerID = "ALFKI", City = "Berlin" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "BONAP", City = "Marseille" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "CONSH", City = "London" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "EASTC", City = "London" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "FRANS", City = "Torino" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "LONEP", City = "Portland" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "NORTS", City = "London" },
new Customer { CustomerID = "THEBI", City = "Portland" }
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};
}
There are several interesting things to note about this code block. First of all,
notice that the new collection is being populated directly within the curly braces.
That is, even though the type is List<T>, not an array, it is possible to use braces to
immediately add elements without calling the Add method. Second, notice that the
Customer elements are being initialized with a new syntax (known as object
initializers).
3. Next query the collection for customers that live in London. Add the following query method
ObjectQuery and add a call to it within the Main method (removing the call to StringQuery).
static void ObjectQuery()
{
var results = from c in CreateCustomers()
where c.City == "London"
select c;
Notice that again the compiler is using type inference to strongly type the results
variable in the foreach loop.
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the results, press any key to
terminate the application.
Three results are shown. As you can see, when using LINQ query expressions,
working with complex types is just as easy as working with primitive types.
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Exercise 2 – LINQ to XML: LINQ for XML documents
LINQ to XML is a new XML DOM that takes advantage of the standard query operators and exposes a
simplified way to create XML documents and fragments.
In this exercise, you learn how to read XML documents into the XDocument object, how to query
elements from that object, and how to create documents and elements from scratch.
1. This exercise uses the following XML file. Save the following as Customers.xml in the \bin\debug
folder located in the current Project folder (by default this should be in …\My Documents\Visual
Studio 2008\Projects\ LINQ Overview\ LINQ Overview\bin\debug):
<Customers>
<Customer CustomerID="ALFKI" City="Berlin" ContactName="Maria Anders" />
<Customer CustomerID="BONAP" City="Marseille" ContactName="Laurence Lebihan" />
<Customer CustomerID="CONSH" City="London" ContactName="Elizabeth Brown" />
<Customer CustomerID="EASTC" City="London" ContactName="Ann Devon" />
<Customer CustomerID="FRANS" City="Torino" ContactName="Paolo Accorti" />
<Customer CustomerID="LONEP" City="Portland" ContactName="Fran Wilson" />
<Customer CustomerID="NORTS" City="London" ContactName="Simon Crowther" />
<Customer CustomerID="THEBI" City="Portland" ContactName="Liz Nixon" />
</Customers>
2. Change the CreateCustomer method in the Program class to read the data in from the XML
file:
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3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Notice the output still only contains those
customers that are located in London. Now press any key to terminate the application.
Notice the query remains the same. The only method that was altered was the
CreateCustomers method.
This task shows how to query data in an XML file without first loading it into custom objects. Suppose
you did not have a Customer class to load the XML data into. In this task you can query directly on the
XML document rather than on collections as shown in Task 2.
1. Add the following method XMLQuery that loads the xml document and prints it to the screen
(also update Main to call the new method):
Console.WriteLine("XML Document:\n{0}",doc);
}
2. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. The entire XML document is now printed to the
screen. Press any key to terminate the application.
3. Return to the XMLQuery method, and now run the same query as before and print out those
customers located in London.
Console.WriteLine("Results:\n");
foreach (var contact in results)
Console.WriteLine("{0}\n", contact);
}
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. The entire XML document isnow printed to the
screen. Press any key to terminate the application.
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Move the mouse over either c or contact to notice that the objects returned from
the query and iterated over in the foreach loop are no longer Customers (like they are
in the ObjectQuery method). Instead they are of type XElement. By querying the
XML document directly, there is no longer a need to create custom classes to store
the data before performing a query.
This task walks though transforming the output of your previous query into a new XML document.
Suppose you wanted to create a new xml file that only contained those customers located in London.
In this task you write this to a different structure than the Customers.xml file; each customer element
stores the city and name as descendent elements rather than attributes.
1. Add the following code that iterates through the results and stores them in this new format.
public static void XMLQuery()
{
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("Customers.xml");
Console.WriteLine("Results:\n{0}", transformedResults);
}
Here a temporary variable, results, was used to store the information returned
from the query before altering the structure of the returned data.
2. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. The new XML document is printed. Notice the
same data is returned, just structured differently. Press any key to terminate the application.
3. Save the output to a file allowing the results of the query to be exported. To do this add the
following line of code.
public static void XMLQuery()
{
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("Customers.xml");
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new XElement("Londoners",
from customer in results
select new XElement("Contact",
new XAttribute("ID", customer.Attribute("CustomerID").Value),
new XElement("Name", customer.Attribute("ContactName").Value),
new XElement("City", customer.Attribute("City").Value)));
Console.WriteLine("Results:\n{0}", transformedResults);
transformedResults.Save("Output.xml");
}
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. The new XML document is printed to the screen
and written to a file that can be located where you placed your Customers.xml file. Now the
data can be exported as XML to another application. Last, press any key to terminate the
application.
Strongly typed dataSets (a key element of the ADO.NET programming model) provide a strongly typed
representation of a set of tables and relationships that is disconnected from a database. These
datasets have the ability to cache data from a database and allow applications to manipulate the data in
memory while retaining its relational shape.
LINQ to DataSet provides the same rich query capabilities shown in LINQ to Objects and LINQ to XML.
In this task you explore how to load in datasets and create basic queries over the dataset.
This exercise requires the Northwind database. Please follow the instructions in the LINQ to
SQL section of the Essence of LINQ paper to get set up with Northwind before proceeding.
1. The project template used earlier takes care of adding references and using directives
automatically. In Solution Explorer, expand LINQ Overview | References and notice the
System.Data reference. In Program.cs add the following directive to use the DataSet
namespace:
using System.Data.SqlClient;
2. You also need to add support for loading configuration information from the app.config file. The
support for this functionality is available in the System.Configuration assembly. In Solution
Explorer, right-click LINQ Overview | References and choose Add Reference.
3. Choose System.Configuration from the list that appears.
4. Click OK.
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5. In Program.cs add the following directive to use the Configuration namespace:
using System.Configuration;
While creating datasets is not new to LINQ, these first few tasks lead you through creation of a dataset
to set up a framework in which to demonstrate LINQ to DataSet.
1. Create the DataSet item. Right-click the LINQ Overview project and then click Add | New Item.
2. In Templates, select DataSet.
3. Provide a name for the new item by entering “NorthwindDS” in the Name box.
4. Click OK.
1. Return to the CreateCustomer method and update it to read data in from the Northwind DataSet
created by the designer (notice the return type also has to change):
static NorthwindDS.CustomersDataTable CreateCustomers()
{
SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter(
"select * from customers",
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings
["LINQOverview.Properties.Settings.NORTHWNDConnectionString"]
.ConnectionString);
NorthwindDS.CustomersDataTable table =
new NorthwindDS.CustomersDataTable();
adapter.Fill(table);
return table;
}
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3. Under the <connectionStrings> node, you will see an <add> node. Within this node, the
connection string key is the value in quotes after name=. Copy this quoted value.
5. Return to the ObjectQuery method. You will need to make one update to the print statement
(and update Main to call ObjectQuery again):
Move the mouse over c to notice that the objects returned from the query and
iterated over in the foreach loop are no longer Customers, rather they are
CustomerRows. These objects are defined in the DataSet and are a strongly typed view
of the Customer Table in the Northwind Database.
6. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Notice the output still only contains those
customers that are located in London. Press any key to terminate the application.
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designer to auto-generate the objects and mappings, and using the command line SQLMetal tool. This
exercise walks through the first two of these three methods.
This exercise requires the Northwind database. Please follow the instructions in the LINQ to
SQL section of the Essence of LINQ paper to get set up with Northwind before proceeding.
1. You need to add support for LINQ to SQL to your project. The support for this functionality is
available in the System.Data.Linq assembly. In Solution Explorer, right-click LINQ Overview |
References and choose Add Reference.
2. Choose System.Data.Linq from the list that appears.
3. Click OK.
4. In Program.cs add the following directive to use the Configuration namespace:
using System.Data.Linq;
using System.Data.Linq.Mapping;
[Table(Name = "Customers")]
public class Customer
{
[Column]
public string CustomerID { get; set; }
[Column]
public string City { get; set; }
2. Return to the ObjectQuery method. As you did for in-memory collections, XML, and DataSet,
again query to find customers that live in London. Notice that minimal changes are required.
After creating a data connection you are able to get rows out of the Customers table and select
those rows for customers that live in London, returning them as IEnumerable<Customer>.
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var results = from c in db.GetTable<Customer>()
where c.City == "London"
select c;
foreach (var c in results)
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", c.CustomerID, c.City);
}
The DataContext object used in the ObjectQuery method is the main conduit
through which objects are retrieved from the database and changes are submitted.
3. You need to replace the connection string here with the correct string for your specific
connection to Northwind. If you’ve done the previous exercise about LINQ to DataSet, you can
find this string in the generated app.config file in the project. You will see later that after
generating strongly typed classes with the designer, it is not necessary to embed the connection
string directly in your code like this.
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the results press any key to
terminate the application.
5. Now add the following line to print the generated SQL query that runs on the database:
6. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the results and the generated SQL
query, press any key to terminate the application.
Task 3 – Creating Object Mapping – Using the Designer – Add Designer File
1. First remove the old mapping. Delete the entire Customer class.
2. Next, create objects to model the tables. Right click the LINQ Overview project and click Add |
New Item.
3. In Templates click LINQ To SQL Classes.
4. Provide a name for the new item by entering “Northwind” in the Name box
5. Click OK.
Task 4 – Creating Object Mapping – Using the Designer – Create the Object View
1. Expand Data Connections in Server Explorer.
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2. Open the Northwind server (NORTHWND.MDF if you are using SQL Server Express).
3. Open the Northwind.dbml file by double clicking it in Solution Explorer.
4. From the Tables folder drag the Customers table onto the design surface.
5. From the Tables folder drag the Products table onto the design surface.
6. From the Tables folder drag the Employees table onto the design surface.
7. From the Tables folder drag the Orders table onto the design surface.
8. From the Stored Procedures folder drag the Ten Most Expensive Products into the method
pane on the right.
5. Press Ctrl+Shift+B to build the application. Take a look at the auto-generated mapping class,
Northwind.designer.cs. Notice a similar use of the attributes on the generated Customer class.
For databases with many tables and stored procedures, using the command line
tool SQLMetal provides more automation and may be a better choice.
1. Return to the program code file by double clicking on the Program.cs file in Solution Explorer.
Find the ObjectQuery method. Each table can now be accessed as a property of the db
variable. At this point, querying is almost identical to the previous exercises. Add the following
code to retrieve customers in London:
static void ObjectQuery()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
db.Log = Console.Out;
var results = from c in db.Customers
where c.City == "London"
select c;
foreach (var c in results)
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", c.CustomerID, c.City);
}
2. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the results, press any key to
terminate the application.
Six results are shown. These are customers in the Northwind Customers table with
a City value of London.
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3. You also created mappings to other tables when using the designer. The Customer class has a
one-to-many mapping to Orders. This next query selects from multiple tables.
static void ObjectQuery()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
db.Log = Console.Out;
var results = from c in db.Customers
from o in c.Orders
where c.City == "London"
select new { c.ContactName, o.OrderID };
foreach (var c in results)
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", c.ContactName, c.OrderID);
}
The select statement creates a new object with an anonymous type (a new C# 3.0
feature). The type created holds two pieces of data, both strings with the names of
the properties of the original data (in this case ContactName and OrderID). Anonymous
types are quite powerful when used in queries. By using these types it saves the
work of creating classes to hold every type of result created by various queries.
In the preceding example, the object model can easily be seen by noticing the
object relationship shown by writing c.Orders. This relationship was defined in the
designer as a one-to-many relationship and now can be accessed in this manner.
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application to view the results. Then press any key to
terminate the application.
In this task, you move beyond data retrieval and see how to manipulate the data. The four basic data
operations are Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete, collectively referred to as CRUD. You see how
LINQ to SQL makes CRUD operations simple and intuitive. This task shows how to use the create and
update operations.
1. Create a new method that modifies the database data as well as a call from Main:
static void ModifyData()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
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var newCustomer = new Customer
{
CompanyName = "AdventureWorks Cafe",
CustomerID = "ADVCA"
};
db.Customers.InsertOnSubmit(newCustomer);
db.SubmitChanges();
2. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Notice that the two lines written to the screen are
different after the database is updated. Now press any key to terminate the application.
Notice that after the Add method is called, the changes are then submitted to the
database using the SubmitChanges method. Note that once the customer has been
inserted, it cannot be inserted again due to the primary key uniqueness constraint.
Therefore this program can only be run once.
3. Now update and modify data in the database. Change ModifyData to the following code that
updates the contact name for the first customer retrieved.
4. Now press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Notice again the number of contacts with the
name “New Contact” changes. Press any key to terminate the application.
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Task 7 – Calling Stored Procedures
Recall that when using the designer, you added a stored procedure along with the tables. In this task
you will call tha stored procedure.
1. Create a new method that prints the results of a call to the Ten Most Expensive Products stored
procedure that was added to the NorthwindDataContext in the designer:
static void InvokeSproc()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
foreach (var r in db.Ten_Most_Expensive_Products())
Console.WriteLine(r.TenMostExpensiveProducts + "\t" + r.UnitPrice);
}
2. Now call this method from the Main method:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
InvokeSproc();
}
3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the results, press any key to
terminate the application.
When the database cannot be accessed through dynamic SQL statements, you can
use C# 3.0 and LINQ to run stored procedures to access the data.
1. So far, the queries demonstrated in this lab have been primarily based on filtering. However,
LINQ supports many options for querying data that go beyond simple filtering. For example, to
sort customers in London by ContactName, you can use the orderby clause (also be sure to set
the Main method to call ObjectQuery again):
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static void Main(string[] args)
{
ObjectQuery();
}
2. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Notice the customers are sorted by the second
column, the name column, in a descending manner. Press any key to terminate the application.
3. Continue with different types of queries: write a query that finds the number of customers located
in each city. To do this make use of the group by expression.
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to run the application. After viewing the results , press any key to terminate the
application.
5. Often when writing queries you want to search through two tables. This is usually performed
using a join operation, which is supported in C# 3.0. In ObjectQuery replace the previous query
with this one. Recall your query printed out all orders for each customer that lives in London.
This time, instead of printing all the orders, print the number of orders per customer.
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6. Press Ctrl+F5 to run the application. Taking a look at the output, the SQL query generated can
also be seen. Press any key to terminate the application.
This example illustrates how a SQL style join can be used when there is no explicit
relationship to navigate.
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2. Call this method from Main:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
OperatorQuery();
}
3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. Then press any key to terminate the application.
Notice that little has changed in this example. The query is now calling the
standard query operators directly, but the result is the same as previous queries that
selected only those customers that live in London.
4. Data aggregation can be obtained by simply calling the standard query operators on the result,
just as you would with any other method. Replace the code in OperatorQuery to determine the
average unit price of all products starting with the letter "A":
5. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. View the results and afterward press any key to
terminate the application.
The result now shows the average cost for products whose names start with "A".
From left to right, first the table (db.Products) is specified and then the results are
restricted to those rows with product names beginning with an "A". To this first
filtered set of results two more operators are applied. Then the UnitPrice column is
selected, getting back a collection of prices, one for each original result. Finally,
using the Average operator the collection of prices are averaged and returned as a
single value.
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Task 2 – Working with the Select Operator
1. The Select operator is used to perform a projection over a sequence, based on the arguments
passed to the operator. Source data are enumerated and results are yielded based on the
selector function for each element. The resulting collection can be a direct pass-through of the
source objects, a single-field narrowing, or any combination of fields in a new object. Replace the
previous query to create a direct projection:
This query restricts the source data based on ProductName and then selects the
entire Product.
This query restricts based on unit price and then returns a sequence of product
names.
3. Add the following lines to create a multi-value projection by using an anonymous type:
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.Select(p => p.ProductName);
Notice that the type returned in this example was never explicitly declared. The
compiler has created this anonymous type behind the scenes, based on the data types
of its members.
1. The Where operator filters a sequence of values based on a predicate. It enumerates the source
sequence, yielding only those values that match the predicate. In the OperatorQuery method,
delete most of the body so it returns to a single command:
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static void OperatorQuery()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
}
2. The Where operator can be used to filter based on predicates. Enter the following code to filter
employees based on employee birth dates:
3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application and view the results. Then press any key to
terminate the application.
1. The Count operator simply returns the number of elements in a sequence. It can be applied to the
collection itself, or chained to other operators such as Where to count a restricted sequence. To
see how this works, in the OperatorQuery method, delete most of the body so it returns to a
single command:
2. Add the following code to count the number of elements in the Customers table:
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Take a look at the two different results (after1, and after2). Notice that restriction
using Where can occur prior to Count being invoked, but it can also take effect
directly within the call to Count.
3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application and view the results before pressing any key to
terminate the application.
Task 5 – Working with the Min, Max, Sum, and Average Operators
1. In the OperatorQuery method, return to the Northwind database. Use the DataContext created
by the designer:
static void OperatorQuery()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
}
2. Add the following lines of code to demonstrate the Min, Max, Sum, and Average operators:
static void OperatorQuery()
{
var db = new NorthwindDataContext();
This example shows how the various aggregate math functions can be applied to
data. You may have noticed that there are two signatures for the methods shown.
Min and Sum are invoked directly on the db.Products object, while the Max and
Average operators are chained after Select operators. In the first case the aggregate
function is applied just to the sequences that satisfy the expression while in the latter
it is applied to all objects. In the end the results are the same.
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3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application. After viewing the latest results, press any key to
terminate the application.
As you can see, using these operators can considerably reduce code complexity.
1. The All and Any operators check whether any or all elements of a sequence satisfy a condition.
The Any operator returns results as soon as a single matching element is found. To see this in
action, in the OperatorQuery method, delete most of the body so it returns to a single command:
2. Like the Count operator, the All and Any operators can be invoked on any condition, and their
scope can be further restricted by specifying a predicate at invocation. Add the following code to
demonstrate both operators:
Console.WriteLine("-----");
Notice that in this case, the Any operator is used within the Where operator of
another expression. This is perfectly legal as the operator is still being called on a
sequence, c.Orders. This is used to return a sequence of all customers who have
placed any orders. The All operator is then used to return customers whose orders
have all had freight costs under $50.
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3. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application and view the results. Then press any key to
terminate the application.
1. The ToArray and ToList operators are designed to convert a sequence to a typed array or list,
respectively. These operators are very useful for integrating queried data with existing libraries of
code. They are also useful when you want to cache the result of a query. In the OperatorQuery
method, delete most of the body so it has to a single command:
3. Next, simply declare an array or List collection, and assign the proper values using the
appropriate operator:
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foreach (var cust in custList)
Console.WriteLine("{0}", cust.ContactName);
}
4. Press Ctrl+F5 to build and run the application and view the results. Then press any key to
terminate the application.
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Lab Summary
In this lab you performed the following exercises:
This lab showed how the LINQ framework and features seamlessly tie together data access and
manipulation from a variety of sources. LINQ allows you to work with in-memory objects with the power
of SQL and the flexibility of C#. LINQ to SQL and LINQ to DataSets leverage this support to link your
objects to database tables and data with little extra effort. Finally, LINQ to XML brings XML query
abilities with the features of XPath, but the ease of C#. The large collection of standard query
operators offers built-in options for data manipulation that would have required extensive custom code
in theearlier versions. Using the LINQ additions to C#, querying and transforming data in a variety of
formats is easier than ever.
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