Chapter 30. LINQ to Entities

The Entity Framework is an object-relational mapping (ORM) system that allows us to work with data in a relational database using normal C# data types and without needing to use SQL. LINQ to Entities is just one part of the Entity Framework, and it allows us to use standard LINQ queries to search for and retrieve data from the underlying database using a data model that maps C# objects to database tables and rows. The Entity Framework is part of ADO.NET, which is the part of .NET responsible for data access and which contains several major areas of functionality.

The Entity Framework can create very complex data models, and objects can be created from multiple tables and even multiple databases. The Entity Framework ...

Get Introducing Visual C# 2010 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.