Mike Murach & Associates has just published a new, C# edition of their popular ADO.NET book.

Now entitled Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with C# 2008, it covers what today’s Visual Basic developer needs to know to create database applications the way the best professionals do. Here are some highlights:

#1  For rapid application development and prototyping
This book shows how to use ADO.NET tools, like data sources and the DataGridView control, that enable developers to create working database applications in a minimum of time, with a minimum of coding.

#2  For serious production applications
This book shows how to go beyond the RAD tools, using heavy-duty ADO.NET coding and object data sources to build 3-layer applications that consist of presentation, business, and database classes.

#3  For incorporating LINQ into Windows and web applications
This book has a 6-chapter section that provides a short course in LINQ, the .NET 3.5 feature that provides a consistent way to query data of any type. This section covers LINQ to Objects, LINQ to DataSet, LINQ to SQL, LINQ data source controls for web applications, and LINQ to XML.

#4  For database programming with the Entity Framework
This book gets developers going with the Entity Framework, the .NET 3.5 feature that may change the way you do database programming. EF provides a flexible model for mapping the business objects in an application to database objects, and it generates a lot of the code that has to be written from scratch otherwise. A 4-chapter section shows how to create an Entity Data Model and work with it using LINQ to Entities, Entity SQL, and Entity data source controls for web applications.

#5  For training and reference: The “paired-pages” format
This book presents each topic in Murach’s standard 2-page format, pairing a page of explanation with an illustrative page of syntax, screen shots, coding examples, and bullet points. Developers report that this lets them read less to get information faster, whether they use the book for training or reference.

We have a sample chapter, Ch 11: An Introduction to LINQ, in the Resources section below.

Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with C# 2008 is available from the publisher at www.murach.com and from all major retail outlets. You can click here to purchase from Amazon.