How do I populate my VS2008 Data Sources window with a LINQ query table?

Question

I´m (professionally) creating a SQL Server database client by using Visual Studio 2008, C# -> Windows Form(s). And I´m using all the built in stuff, provided by my friend VS Studio, dragging and dropping, creating SQL query tables in DataSet.xsd, and so on... I like that.

But!

I would like to try out LINQ, as I would like to have something that to me is more intuitive than pure SQL...

And (here comes the newbie-problem to be solved)!

I don´t know where to put the LINQ code to make a table "pop up" in the Data Sources window - meaning I´m completely stuck! How should I do it?

Answer 1

In the VS2008 menu,
Project > Add New Item… > Data (category) > LINQ to SQL Classes

A designer will open up.

Open your database in the Server Explorer pane, and drag you tables onto the design surface.

Edit after comments

Here is an example of using LINQ to query the database in code:

using(var db as NameOfYourLinqDataContextClass)
{
    var myCars = from car in db.cars
                     where car.owner_name.Equals("Jay")
                     select car;

    foreach (var car in myCars)
    {
        myForm.myCarsList.Add(string.Format("{0} {1}", car.make, car.model));
    }
}

Here I've queried the cars table in my database for any row where the value in the car_owner column is "Jay." Using this query, I concatenate the values from the make and model columns and put them in a list or something on my form.

LINQ-to-SQL creates CLR classes based on the schema of your database. You create these query expressions "on-the-fly," which get converted into T-SQL queries behind the scenes and are executed against the database when the results are needed. That is to say that in the example above, no call is made to the database until the line foreach (var car in myCars).