I need to arrange those concepts in my head:
Does Entity Framework is "the new" ADO .NET? What is the difference between those two terms? And how does LINQ to SQL related to each one? Is it part of the entity framework?
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5Entity Framework and Linq-to-SQL are both ORM's built on top of ADO.NET; neither of the two completely replaces or superceeds ADO.NETmarc_s– marc_s2010-12-09 12:12:12 +00:00Commented Dec 9, 2010 at 12:12
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3 Answers
Entity Framework is an O/R mapper which is built on top of ADO.NET. LINQ to SQL is another alternative O/R mapping approach, but as far as I know, Microsoft goes for Entity Framework in future rather than LINQ to SQL.
2 Comments
ET.
Yes it does, thanks. Yet another question: Entity Framework was revealed in .NET 4?
Matthias Meid
Yes, 3.5 SP1 - but in EF 4 they fixed and improved lots of things that were cumbersome in 3.5 SP1 (auto pluralization of entities, foreign key fields, ...). I haven't migrated yet, so I cannot tell you in detail.
ADO.NET is part of the .NET Framework. It consist of some libraries that can manage access to database systems.
LINQ to SQL is kind of a translator that let you use your database tables like objects. It is part of the .NET 3.5 Framework. It will translate object queries in sql. The db access can be ADO.NET as well.
The Entity Framework (aka ADO.NET Entity Framework) is a ORM framework which means that it will create you a layer between entities and database, the db access will be ADO.NET (although it could be something else)
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Yakimych
That's not extremely accurate. Both L2S and EF are ORMs. EF in newer and has more features though.
As many of the respondents said already LINQ 2 SQL and Entity Framework are built on top of ADO.NET. Microsoft did not have a presence in Object Relational Mapping (ORM) space. After LINQ was released they came up with a stop gap solution in the form of LINQ 2 SQL. This works only with SQL Server database.
Entity Framework can be said as the first true ORM from MS which can work with all SQL complient databases. The learning curve is very small if someone knows about the LINQ 2 SQL. Microsoft reccomends that for all future data access related solutions Entity Framework should be an ideal choice.
Hope this helps.
2 Comments
ET.
In your opinion, if I dont know LINQ2SQL (but do know LINQ to objects), should I learn LINQ2SQL or jump straight to EF?
Nilesh Gule
I would suggest jump straight to EF. I did not learn LINQ2SQL. For starters you can visit my blog where I blogged few posts in a series called Entity Framework 4 learning series. nileshgule.blogspot.com/2010/09/…. Hope this helps