XLinq, one of a set of extensions to .NET languages, improves on the XML DOM in both flexibility and expressive power. This article series shows you how to take advantage of XLinq in your own applications.
by Thiru Thangarathinam
July 6, 2006
early every .NET application needs to handle data that may reside in a wide range of data sources, from relational databases, to XML, to in-memory or disk-persisted objects. Although .NET Framework 2.0 exposes a number of classes to handle these types of data, it lacks a unified approach to handling data from disparate data sources. In other words, until now, you needed to learn a multitude of technologies such as ADO.NET, SQL, XML DOM, XML serialization, etc., to be able to read and update these various data sources. To solve this problem, Microsoft has released a set of technologies called Language-integrated Query (LINQ) that is specifically geared towards making data access consistent—regardless of the back-end data store.
Key Components of LINQ
At this early stage, the LINQ family consists of three technologies, although Microsoft or third-party developers may add more in the future:
LINQ is a general purpose API that provides the core foundation for a consistent query experience.
DLinq (also known as LINQ to SQL) is a LINQ extension geared mainly towards relational databases.
XLinq (also known as LINQ to XML) is a LINQ extension for querying XML documents, as well as creating or transforming XML.
This article focuses primarily on XLinq, which provides an in-memory XML programming API for handling and processing XML data.
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early every .NET application needs to handle data that may reside in a wide range of data sources, from relational databases, to XML, to in-memory or disk-persisted objects. Although .NET Framework 2.0 exposes a number of classes to handle these types of data, it lacks a unified approach to handling data from disparate data sources. In other words, until now, you needed to learn a multitude of technologies such as ADO.NET, SQL, XML DOM, XML serialization, etc., to be able to read and update these various data sources. To solve this problem, Microsoft has released a set of technologies called Language-integrated Query (LINQ) that is specifically geared towards making data access consistent—regardless of the back-end data store.
