ADO.NET, LINQ, DataSet and other fun .NET technology

Sometimes you run into a bug in DataSet, or some other product. At this point, you have a couple of choices. You can work around the bug, or you can call CSS/PSS. Most people take the former route unless they can't figure out a workaround. When you call...

I'm currently down in sunny Orlando, getting ready for Tech Ed (or is it TechEd? That dot between letters is a very odd thing). I'm going to be presenting on LINQ to DataSet, and Understanding the Entity Framework. As usual, I have far too much material...

Index usage One of the features of the DataView that often gets overlooked is its ability to very quickly find a DataRow (or multiple DataRows) by an index value. The index is built on the sort criteria, so if you sort based on the last name column...

Let's say you want to have a DataSet with an Integer column, and this column can have no values, which for argument's sake we'll call NULL values (there is a whole argument about NULL really means, but we'll punt on that). The DataSet has been around...

It's been a while - but don't worry, I didn't drop off the face of the planet, or get eaten by huge worms. In the time since my last post, I've taken on some new responsibilities, namely a number of XML technologies, including those that are shipping...

If you've been playing with LINQ to DataSet, you may have noticed the EnumerableRowCollection type. For example, if you have a query like the following, the type of query is EnumerableRowCollection. var query = from row in ds.Tables[0].AsEnumerable...

LINQ To DataSet Data Binding – LinqDataView restriction joins In previous episodes In the last post I made on LINQ To DataSet Binding, I talked about how to create a LinqDataView. I’m going to spend some time today talking about some of the interesting...

It's long overdue, but I finally was able to finish a few more posts on this series. Let me know if you find it helpful, and what you would like to see more of! Why DataView? As mentioned in this previous post , there are numerous options for data...

Have you ever wondered exactly what is going on inside of ADO.NET? Is Reflector the first thing you install after Visual Studio? Then you'll be interested in that fact that ScottGu just announced that the source for the .NET framework is going to be released...

I'm currently in Denver for the SQL Server PASS conference. I'll be giving a talk about the Entity Framework for DBAs tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. If you're there, please come by. Even if you can't make my session, stop by and say hello! Thanks...

With the introduction of LINQ to DataSet there finally exists a full featured query language for the DataSet. Now your ability to query your data is limited only by CLR, which is no small thing! For an introduction on LINQ to DataSet, please see this...

I was recently asked what a high level list of good starting points for the Entity Framework is. This is a tough question as there are a lot of areas to cover. I've put together a list that I think makes sense from my perspective, which is tilted towards...

There are a host of new technologies coming out, and among them are some ORM type of systems. I want to spend some time exploring how a DBA will work with these, and if they are good or bad. Given that I am on the Entity Framework team, that is the place...

This morning I performed a MSDN WebCast on LINQ to DataSet. I hope it was useful for people, and that I was able to answer all the questions sufficiently. If you missed the live show, you can always catch the "TiVo" version (i.e., on demand webcast)....

With all the sample confusion during the March CTP, you will be pleased to know that the sample story for Beta 1 is much more smooth. You can find the complete working set of samples at the following URL. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/bb330936...

I've been quiet lately, mostly getting a lot of work done. The DevConnections conference went great; I really enjoyed meeting everyone there! Along those lines, I'll be doing a LINQ to DataSet presentation tomorrow morning. If you're interested, please...

I just finished a great presentation at DevConnections down here in sunny Orlando. For those of you could make it to my session, I wanted to let you know where you could get the samples for download, which is right here! Please note that Sample 3 will...

If you have downloaded the March CTP (and you have, haven't you?) you might have noticed that the LINQ to Entities samples were not functioning correctly right out of the gate. Unfortunately in the fast moving world of CTP development, sometimes the samples...

The Orcas March (aka Feb) CTP is now available for download. Included in this release is the Entity Framework, LINQ to DataSet, LINQ to XML, LINQ to Entities, and much more. It’s available both as a VPC and as a side-by-side installation. I encourage...

As part of the process of bringing our technology babies into the world, I wrote a series of blog postings on LINQ to DataSet. They provide an introduction and hit some of the highpoints of LINQ to DataSet. Please head on over and check it out! http...

LINQ over DataSet contains two extension methods on DataTable that allow the data in a DataTable to accessed by LINQ. One exposes the data as IQueryable<DataRow> and the other as IEnumerable<DataRow>. Why is this, and what are these two interfaces...

Extension methods are one of the many great new features of C# 3.0. They basically allow you to declare static methods that appear to be instance methods of a type, even if you have no access to the type (sealed classes, etc). The key point is that you...

I was doing some tests on LINQ over DataTables where I was selecting into a new anonymous type. The code was quite simple, just doing a basic select. var res = from n in contacts.Contact where n.LastName.StartsWith("L") select new {n}; ...