Mike Murach & Associates has just published a new, C# edition of their popular ADO.NET book. Entitled Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with C# 2008, it covers what today’s C# 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 the 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’s a short course in LINQ, the .NET 3.5 feature that provides a consistent way to query different types of data. 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. Entity Framework (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 uses Murach’s standard format to present the content in 2-page spreads, pairing a page of explanation with an illustrative page of syntax, screen shots, coding examples, and bulleted guidelines. Developers report that this lets them read less to get information faster, whether they use the book for training or reference.

Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with C# 2008 is available directly from the publisher at www.murach.com and from all major retail outlets.

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