LINQ or Language Integrated Query is part of the Microsoft .NET Framework and it adds native data querying capabilities to .NET languages.

LINQ allows the user to query:

• Objects in Memory (i.e. collections such as lists) using LINQ to Objects
• Databases using LINQ to Entities
• XML using LINQ to XML
• ADO.Net Datasets using LINQ to Datasets

LINQ can either be implemented using predefined extension methods or alternatively using LINQ Query Operators.

Below are three examples utilising LINQ Extension methods:

In this example a list of Book objects is filtered to return only the Objects where the price is less than 10.

List<Book> cheapBooks = books.Where(b=>b.Price < 10);

 

In this example a list of Book objects is filtered to return only the Objects where the price is less than 10 and additionally the newly created list of Book objects is sorted alphabetically based on the Title field.

List<Book> cheapBooks = books.Where(b=>b.Price < 10).OrderBy(b.Title);

 

In this example the cheapBooks list is filtered to only return the Titles of the books therein and these Titles are then inserted into a new list of strings.

List<string> cheapBooksTitles = cheapBooks.Select(b=>b.Title);

 

Multiple extension methods can be combined to ascertain the desired results, for example:

List<string> cheapBooksTitles = books.Where(b=>b.Price).OrderBy(b.Title);
                                   .Select(b=>b.Title);

 

LINQ query operators tend to be slightly more verbose, and the above example can be implemented with query operators as follows:

List<string> cheapBooksTitles = from b in books
                         where b.Price < 10
                         orderby b.Title
                         select b.Title;

 

Some common extension methods are:

Single

var book = books.Single(b=>b.Title == ”Building Robots”);

Returns a single object that matches the defined criteria. However note that in the event that none or more than one book matches the criteria specified an exception will be thrown.

 

SingleOrDefault

var book = books.SingleOrDefault(b=>b.Title == ”Building Robots”);

Returns a single object that matches the defined criteria, if more than one book matches the criteria specified an exception will be thrown, however if no books match the criteria the default value defined will be returned.

 

First

Returns the first object that matches the criteria, however if no matches are found an exception is thrown.

 

FirstOrDefault

Returns the first object that matches the criteria and if no match is found the default value will be returned.

 

Last

Returns the last object that matches the criteria, however if no matches are found an exception is thrown.

 

LastOrDefault

Returns the last object that matches the criteria and if no match is found the default value will be returned.

 

Max

var maxValue = books.Max(b=>b.Price);

Max is used with numeric values and will return the highest value that is contained in the Price field in the Book objects.

 

Min

var minValue = books.Min(b=>b.Price);

Min is another operation used with numeric values and will return the smallest value that is contained in the Price field in the Book objects.

 

Sum

var totalPrice = books.Sum(b=>b.Price);

Sum is used to add up all the values in a numeric field.

 

There are many other methods available to filter and manipulate data in LINQ and the possibilities for the utilisation of LINQ are nearly endless, for example

var bookSelection = books.Skip(2).Take(3);

The above example will skip the first two books in the books list and take the next three placing them into the newly created bookSelection list.

The best option to gain a better insight of what is possible with LINQ is to give it a try.

A lambda expression is a function definition with no name, no access modifier and no return statement. Lambda expressions are also known as Anonymous methods or functions.

The syntax for the definition of a lambda expressions is as follows:

(arguments) => expression

The below C# code does not use lambda expressions and is given as a comparative reference point:

static int SquareNumber(int number)
{
   return number*number;
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
   Int y = SquareNumber(10);
   Console.WriteLine(y); // This will display 100
}

The above code can be refactored using a lambda expression as follows:

static void Main(string[] args)
{

   Func<int,int> square = number=>number*number;
   Console.WriteLine(square(10)); // This will display 100

}

The result of this refactor is fewer lines of code in order to achieve the same result.

Lambda expressions can also make use of Delegates as shows here:

delegate int squareDelegate (int number);

static void Main(string[] args)
{
   squareDelegate square = number=>number*number;
   Console.WriteLine(square(10)); // This will display 100
}

 

The syntax for a lambda expression that takes no arguments is as follows:

()=>expression

For one argument:

X=>expression

For more than one argument:

(x,y,z)=>expression

 

Lambda expressions can also be very effectively used with objects that implement the IEnumerable and IQueryable interfaces to filter or search based on defined criteria, for example:

var highPriceList = PriceList.FindAll(a=>a.Price>10);

This will return all items with a price larger than 10, and place these items in the highPriceList.

 

var nyCustomers = Customers.Where(a=>a.City==”New York”);

This will place all customers with the city property set to “New York” into the nyCustomers collections.

Lambda expressions are an extremely useful tool with many other uses.