---
title: "What is LINQ?"  
description: "LINQ address the current database development model in thecontext of Object Oriented Programming Model. If we want to develop database applicationin ."  
author: "Uttam Misra"  
published: 2010-09-07  
updated: 2014-09-18  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/8/what-is-linq  
category: "linq"  
tags: ["linq"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# What is LINQ?

LINQ address the current [database development](https://www.mindstick.com/services/database-development) model in thecontext of Object [Oriented Programming](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162/object-oriented-programming-oop-s) Model. If we want to develop database applicationin .Net platform then there will be very simple approach like we will useADO.NET because it will work as a middleware to connect database, for businesslogic we should be good in C# or VB.NET so overall we should have goodknowledge in both database programming (SQL) and in Object Oriented Programmingbut here SQL statements become the part of C# and VB.NET code in the form ofLINQ. So we can write database code in C# or VB.NET.

LINQ has a great power of querying on any source of data,[data source](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/808/what-is-a-data-source) could be the [collections](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12458/what-are-collections-in-c-sharp) of objects, database or XML files. We caneasily [retrieve data](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/160512/how-to-retrieve-data-from-the-database-in-c-sharp-using-dataadapter) from any object that implements the IEnumerable<T> interface. Microsoft divides LINQ into three areas.

- LINQ to Object {Queries performed against the in-memory data}
- LINQ to ADO.Net
- [LINQ to SQL](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/338528/how-to-use-linq-to-sql-select-query-using-c-sharp) (formerly DLinq) {Queries performed against the relation database only [Microsoft SQL](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159597/my-sql-server-vs-microsoft-sql-server-which-one-better) Server Supported}
- LINQ to DataSet {Supports queries by using ADO.NET data sets and [data tables](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/1216/full-outer-join-on-2-data-tables-with-a-list-of-columns)}
- LINQ to Entities {Microsoft ORM solution}
- LINQ to [XML](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/145511/please-explain-json-vs-xml) (formerly XLinq) { Queries performed against the XML source}
-

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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/8/what-is-linq

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