The power of LINQ (Language – Integrated Query)

In my work as a QA Engineer and especially in my current job, I’ve found I need to do a lot of verifying of data in our database.

So I decided to start working on a C# app that will help that process and speed things up for me. At first I began experimenting with creating TableAdapter queries. But I quickly realised I was boxed in with those. Or perhaps it’s simply my inexperience with them that hinders me more? I wanted to create a form where I could use the input in a set of text boxes as parameters to add to a query for a table. I became stuck quickly. Each new query created a new control which was great, but none of these queries would work with the others. So I turned to something that seems to be very popular, LINQ.

My first foray into the land of LINQ has been successful enough that I want to learn more about it now. It definitely looks like it has the power to do what I  want it to do.  And it has a cool name to boot, always reminds me of the old SNES game… Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past  (still a great game even among the games around today).

As I learn more about it, I’ll post up some code snippets if i remember to do so 🙂

It was definitely much easier to get going with than I expected and was really simple to output my data onto an empty datagrid control. Which makes me happy, as the less time i have to spend writing the application, the more time I can spend using it and being productive.