VB9 & Linq

[PaulYuk_MS]

Have y'all been trying out LINQ and some of the other new language features? What do you think?

[masfenix]

Being 18 and in highschool, I havnt even mastered SQL yet.

Tell me, as a future freelance developer, is it worth to learn LINQ right now, or is it one of those things that you can use after you've mastered SQL.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a noob at SQL, I would rate my self as intermediate.

Also I mostly do web programming with .net. I asked my host, and he said .net 3.5 is on testing grounds right now. Hopefully by January they can offer 3.5.

I guess that would be the time when I switch and use LINQ to talk to my database.

[PaulYuk_MS]

Yes, given what you've told me I'd look at it now. You can make progress using LINQ with intermediate SQL knowledge.

The interesting thing is LINQ isn't just about databases and relational objects. You can use it to query over most objects and lists. E.g. you could find all the processes with working set over 10MB, or all pictures in "My Pictures" folder created this year, or all the RSS feeds with the "VB" tag. Another cool think is you can combine queries over different data sources -- e.g. grab data from an XML file and combine it with picture files in the file system.

Experience with SQL will help you with the syntax. But, one thing you should learn early on is the concept of deferred execution and enumeration. In a nutshell, your code will fetch data at the time the expression is evaluated or enumerated. So you want to make your query as specific as possible before that happens - else you're grabbing unnecessary amounts of data. Make sense?

I'm sure BethMa or AmandaS have good articles or posts on the subject.

Best,
Paul

[masfenix]

Okay, I will look into those how to videos since there pretty helpful.

i am gonna go google deferred execute, and enumeration since I have no idea what those are :P.

Also I know this is going WAY off track, and maybe better off through PM, but do you know if MS offers a class for students? Like I am just getting out of highschool, starting college soon also. But in my free time, i wouldnt mind flying over to LA and working with you guys haha.

[funkyonex]

Hi Masfenix,

You can also check out this learning plan - it's LINQ content from the VB Team which includes how-to videos, interviews, blog posts, articles.

Have Fun!
-B