Language Integrated Query

Language Integrated Query (LINQ, pronounced 'link') is a Microsoft .NET Framework component that adds native data querying capabilities to .NET languages, originally released as a major part of .NET Framework 3.5 in 2007. Language Integrated Query (LINQ, pronounced 'link') is a Microsoft .NET Framework component that adds native data querying capabilities to .NET languages, originally released as a major part of .NET Framework 3.5 in 2007. LINQ extends the language by the addition of query expressions, which are akin to SQL statements, and can be used to conveniently extract and process data from arrays, enumerable classes, XML documents, relational databases, and third-party data sources. Other uses, which utilize query expressions as a general framework for readably composing arbitrary computations, include the construction of event handlers or monadic parsers. It also defines a set of method names (called standard query operators, or standard sequence operators), along with translation rules used by the compiler to translate fluent-style query expressions into expressions using these method names, lambda expressions and anonymous types. Many of the concepts that LINQ introduced were originally tested in Microsoft's Cω research project. Ports of LINQ exist for PHP (PHPLinq), JavaScript (linq.js), TypeScript (linq.ts), and ActionScript (ActionLinq), although none are strictly equivalent to LINQ in the .NET inspired languages C#, F# and VB.NET (where it is a part of the language, not an external library, and where it often addresses a wider range of needs).