[Book Review] &quot;Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad&quot;

As I mentioned a couple days ago, [Book Review - Preview] "Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad", the team at Packt have given me the opportunity to review Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad by Sébastien Finot.

Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad

What you will learn from this book

Discover what LINQ can do and how it will help you

Learn all about LINQ query operators to join, aggregate, select, and filter data

Write LINQ queries with both method and query syntaxes

Query databases and remote services using LINQ

Create and manipulate XML and in-memory collections

Differentiate LINQPad’s query types

Handle user input with LINQPad

Customize LINQPad to fit your taste or workflow

...

In my usual review style, I'm going to give you my impressions, feelings and thoughts about the book. I'm not going to give you chapter-by-chapter blow-by. That you can get from other reviews and by visiting the book's site...

So let's get started then!

I received the eBook on Thursday and two train rides later I was done. The book has 126 pages, but the first part (ToC, author and reviewer notes, etc) and the index at the end take a percentage of those. That just means the rest is more like condensed soup that just needs your brain juices to reconstitute (hum... not sure where I'm going with that... but it sounded kind of cool...lol). Anyway, I pretty much couldn't put it down.

This book isn't for LINQPad Ninja's. It's not really for LINQ Ninja's either.

It's perfect for those that might not be using LINQ as well as they think they should be. It's perfect for those who think they might not be using LINQPad as effectively as they could. If you're anything like me, doc's and help are a last resort. We install the app and just start clicking. If we can get it doing something, well, we're good. This means through that many times we miss features or don't use the app as well as we could be. This book will help you if you use LINQPad like that...

But more importantly, this book is a great tutorial on LINQ. It's like learning LINQ with LINQPad added as extra flavoring. That said, if you're 100% new to LINQ, I'd get a broader book. But if you're using LINQ a little, or know one or two tricks, this book is a great way to expand your existing LINQ knowledge.

I'm gushing aren't I?

Well when I read a book on one day and use what I've read the next to help me solve a problem and save a number of lines of code... well, that causes me to gush a little.

Oh it's not perfect. There's a couple tip sections repeated. The focus on Linq to SQL, while the linq stuff is great and seeing it work in the utility is really cool, it might give the impression that Linq to SQL is something you should use in your app's. Personally, I wouldn't. It's not that the tech is bad, it's just the tech is dead. Linq to SQL has about zero future.

I'd liked to have seen the "other data sources" expanded on.

But in those two chapters, there's Linq learning going on, and I wouldn't skip them, even if you don't use that tech.

Summary

If you're a LINQ Jedi or your already live in LINQPad, this book might not be for you. Think of this book as a 200 Linq & LINQPad class. So if you're already a 300, 400, 500, then, well you get the picture)

If you're looking for a book to help you improve your existing Linq knowledge, to expand beyond a limited/working use, check out this book.

If you're looking to better use the awesome that is LINQPad, check out this book.

Would I recommend this book to a friend or co-worker, knowing they'd have to pay for it? I think I've been doing just that above... :)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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