What is the difference between “LINQ to Entities”, “LINQ to SQL” and “LINQ to Dataset”

Here we will see what is the difference between "LINQ to Entities", "LINQ to SQL" and "LINQ to Dataset"?

All of them are LINQ - Language Integrated Query - so they all share a lot of commonality. All these "dialects" basically allow you to do a query-style select of data, from various sources.

Linq-to-SQL is Microsoft's first attempt at an ORM - Object-Relational Mapper. It supports SQL Server only. It's a mapping technology to map SQL Server database tables to .NET objects.

Linq-to-Entities is the same idea, but using Entity Framework in the background, as the ORM - again from Microsoft, but supporting multiple database backends

Linq-to-DataSets is LINQ, but using is against the "old-style" ADO.NET 2.0 DataSets - in the times before ORM's from Microsoft, all you could do with ADO.NET was returning DataSets, DataTables etc., and Linq-to-DataSets queries those data stores for data. So in this case, you'd return a DataTable or DataSets (System.Data namespace) from a database backend, and then query those using the LINQ syntax

I guess you came to this post by searching similar kind of issues in any of the search engine and hope that this resolved your problem. If you find this tips useful, just drop a line below and share the link to others and who knows they might find it useful too. 

Stay tuned to my blog, twitter or facebook to read more articles, tutorials, news, tips & tricks on various technology fields. Also Subscribe to our Newsletter with your Email ID to keep you updated on latest posts. We will send newsletter to your registered email address. We will not share your email address to anybody as we respect privacy.

This article is related to

C#,.NET,Architect,Intermediate,VS2010,.Net,Articles,Computer Tutorials,LINQ to SQL,LINQ to Entities,LINQ to Datasets,ORM,,LINQ