LINQ Preview (May 2006 CTP) Available for Download

The May 2006 Community Technical Preview (CTP) of the Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) features for the next version of Visual Studio (codenamed "Orcas") is available for download from MSDN. This update optionally brings C# 3.0 into DLinq and XLinq parity with VB 9.0.

The LINQ Preview (May 2006).msi installer uninstalls the LINQ Preview (Jan 2006) and LINQ Technical Preview (PDC 2005) bits before installing the May 2006 CTP. New VB9 DLinq and XLinq Features According to the Readme.htm page, following are the new LINQ May 2006 CTP features for the forthcoming Visual Basic 9.0 language in Orcas: • Enhanced DLinq Support: This CTP adds support for Inheritance, Stored Procedures, User-Defined Functions, and Optimistic Concurrency Conflict Resolution (OCCR). The new DLinq Designer provides a visual design surface for creating DLinq entity classes from database tables. • LINQ over DataSet: The full power of LINQ can now be applied to the DataSet, allowing you to use the Standard Query Operators and some DataSet-specific extensions to query against DataRows. • Group By Query Comprehensions: The compiler now supports Group By as a valid clause in LINQ Queries. • Outlining support for XML Literals in the Editor: In this release, we added outlining support for XML literals. You can now expand or collapse any XML element literal that spans across more than one line. • Value extension property for XML axis properties: We added a Value extension property to the collections that are returned from the XML axis properties (i.e. IEnumerable(Of XElement) and IEnumerable(Of XAttribute)). This extension property does two things, it first picks up the first object in that IEnumerable, and if this object exists, it calls the Value property on this object (either XElement or XAttribute). Changes to the LINQ January 2006 CTP • Select/From syntax: The previous tech preview supported using Select before From. In an effort to provide better IntelliSense™, we’re switching to the From/Select format for this CTP. See yesterday's blog entry, "DLinq: VB 9 Throws in the Towel on Select/From". • Joins don’t require It: You don’t need to use the iterator variable It anymore when performing a join operation, though it’s still required for grouping operations. • XML axis properties syntax: The late bound XML feature has a new name and a new distinct syntax where we wrap the element name with angle brackets. This new syntax makes the XML axis properties visually distinct and solves problems that the previous CTP syntax had. See the "VB 9.0 Xml features - latest update" entry of the Microsoft XML Team's Weblog for more information. New C# 3.0 Features

The C# LINQ update isn't installed by default. [To be updated after verification of new C# features.]

Previous OakLeaf Posts on LINQ, DLinq and XLinq

Here's a list of my 34 posts to date on LINQ, DLinq and XLinq. (One member of the list is a duplicate with a title typo). Technorati Tags: LINQ, DLinq, XLinq, C# 3.0, VB 9, Visual Basic 9, Orcas, DataSets