LINQ (Integrated Query Language for .NET) is a new addition to .NET Framework and is in its beta stage. In .NET 3.0, you can use LINQ instead of ADO.NET to work with databases.
Here are some of the key advantages and disadvantages of using LINQ vs. SQL.
- SQL is designed to work with databases only, while LINQ is designed to work with databases as well as other data sources including collections and objects.
- SQL returns results in a flat table format while LINQ returns data in a hierarchical format and traversing in LINQ is faster than SQL results sets.
- LINQ assumes you are good at object-oriented programming, collections, and generics. Without expertise in generics, you will be lost.
- Almost every developer is familiar with SQL syntaxes. To use LINQ, you have to learn new syntaxes.
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