182Microsoft Visual Studio 2010: A Beginner’s Guide
Key Skills & Concepts
●Work on SQL Server Databases with Visual Studio 2010
●Query Data with Language Integrated Query (LINQ)
●Use LINQ to SQL to Query and Manipulate SQL Server Data
Most of the work we do each day involves data, and most of the data we work with comes from databases. Because of the importance of data in our applications, this
chapter introduces how to work with data in VS. It’s very important to learn the concepts in this chapter because it will affect all of the work you do when programming. You’ll also see many examples of working with data throughout the rest of this book, underscoring the importance of data in software engineering.
While you’re free to work with any data source you want, Microsoft has several versions of SQL Server from free Express versions to Enterprise level. Since SQL Server Express ships with VS, we’ll use that for all of the examples in this chapter and the rest of the book. Don’t worry; the development experience for Express is similar to all other versions, so what you learn will be applicable to other versions of SQL Server.
Data operations are so important that you also have support in the programming languages for working with data called Language Integrated Query (LINQ). You can use LINQ to query many types of data sources, whether it is objects, XML, or relational data. This chapter will show you how to use LINQ for querying data from SQL Server.
Working with Databases
VS provides several tools for working directly with databases. The free Express versions of VS, such as Visual C# Express and Visual Basic Express, don’t have this
Introduction to Server Explorer
You don’t need to open a project to perform any database work. To start working with databases in VS, you need to start VS and then open Server Explorer by clicking
