Click the following links to download sample chapters in zipped PDF files.

Chapter 21. LINQ (5.44 MB)

This chapter describes language integrated query (LINQ, pronounced "link") features. It explains how you can write SQL-like queries to select data from or into objects, XML, or database objects. For example, this lets you select certain objects from an array, as in selecting Customer objects with outstanding balances greater than $50. This chapter also explains PLINQ, a parallel version of LINQ that can provide improved performance on multi-core systems.

Chapter 39. Useful Namespaces (2.18 MB)

This chapter describes some of the more useful namespaces defined by the .NET Framework. It provides a brief overview of some of the most important System namespaces and gives more detailed examples that demonstrate regular expressions, XML, cryptography, reflection, threading, parallel programming, and Direct3D.

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