[Book Review - Preview] "Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad"

You all know me, a month without LINQPad is a month not well lived...  :P

Anyway... When the team at Packt gave me the opportunity to review Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad by Sébastien Finot I jumped at it.

Received the book this morning and am already 50%... (Got to love the train commute :)  I'll have the final review up this weekend, but the short of it is, this isn't a book just about LINQPad, but instead LINQ + LINQPad. If you're already 100% LINQ Ninja and use every feature of LINQPad already, then this book isn't for you. But if your LINQ skills are not what you think they should be or you'd like to take advantage or more of the features found in LINQPad, well...

Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad

What you will learn from this book

• Discover what LINQ can do and how it will help you
• Learn all about LINQ query operators to join, aggregate, select, and filter data
• Write LINQ queries with both method and query syntaxes
• Query databases and remote services using LINQ
• Create and manipulate XML and in-memory collections
• Differentiate LINQPad’s query types
• Handle user input with LINQPad
• Customize LINQPad to fit your taste or workflow

In Detail

If you need to interact with databases, XML, in-memory collections, or remote services, LINQ can make your life simpler. The best way to discover LINQ is with the help of LINQPad, a free IDE whose first goal is to make sure that writing and interacting with your LINQ query is fun and easy. More generally, LINQPad is a C#/VB/F# scratchpad that instantly executes any expression, statement block, or program with rich output formatting and a wealth of features.

With Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad, you will quickly learn everything you need to know to start using LINQ. To accelerate your learning curve, you will discover how to use LINQPad and its features to test your queries interactively and experiment with all the options offered by LINQ.

In all probability, you already know C#, but have you had a chance to try out LINQ? Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad will introduce you to everything LINQ can offer and will let you interact with every example in LINQPad, LINQ’s best companion.

You will learn how to build and experiment with interactive queries with this practical guide illustrated with short and detailed code samples. You will also get acquainted with other cool applications of LINQpad such as testing, code snippet generation, and so on, along with a broad approach to LINQ (to object, to SQL, to XML, and so on).

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Nothing like a little LinqPad fun for a Friday - "Hosting ASP.NET Web API in LinqPad"
Today's LINQPad fun, SelectExcept! (a tip on selecting all the fields, except...)
LINQPad is just for [no, not "breakfast"... ha.. fooled you] LINQ... Using LINQPad to execute code snippets.
.DumpJson() - LINQPad Extension Fun...
Playing with the TFS API via LINQPad (as in using LINQPad to query TFS via the TFS API)
LINQPad +50 - Adding 50 LINQ examples from DevCurry to LINQPad's sample pallet
Since we're talking about LINQPad... StreamInsight v1.2 Driver and samples for LINQPad
Jesse liberates our LINQ'ness - Learning LINQ, from LINQPad to Visual Studio
LINQ[Pad] to Twitter
LINQPad’ing into Dallas - The latest LINQPad now has “Dallas” support baked in.
OData my LINQPad – LINQPad (beta) now supports Data Services/OData (and there’s .Net 4 rev too)
Need an ad-hoc query tool for your Azure data tables? LINQPad to the rescue
This post title made me laugh, “I've Left Query Analyzer Hell For LINQPad Heaven”
LINQPad and the Entity Framework
Getting External with LINQPad – Advanced LINQPad Dimecast (aka part 3 of 3)
Fun with .Dump() in LINQPad – An intermediate level Dimecast for LINQPad
Link to LINQPad – A Dimecast LINQPad Walkthrough
LINQPad - A Free Interactive LINQ to SQL (and others) Utility (Think "SQL Query Analyzer for LINQ")