VB.NET question. Linq Support?

Question

Does VB.NET have LINQ support? I was discussing VB vs C# tonight and I was told that VB is different because it does not handle web services as well as C# and that it does not support linq. Is this true?

Answer 1

VB.NET definitely supports LINQ syntax. As far as web services are concerned I see no relation with LINQ.

Answer 2

Yes, VB supports LINQ:

• Its query expressions are actually richer than C#'s, in that there are various LINQ operators which are directly supported where you'd have to call the extension method directly in C#
• It supports using extension methods as well, so you can still do things that the query expressions can't express

One area it does fall down on a bit is the conciseness of lambda expressions: from what I remember, VB9 didn't support anonymous functions with full bodies, and even in VB10 it ends up being wordier than C#.

I haven't used web services from VB, but I would be wary of accepting the truth of the claim that it doesn't handle them as well as C# if the source is the same one that told you it doesn't support LINQ...

Answer 3

Working with WCF in VB.NET is just as easy as in C#, the same with ASMX Web Services.

Answer 4

You have received answers pertaining to the LINQ part of your question, so I won't cover that again. It sounds like a very general statement to say that VB.NET does not handle web services as well as C#.

I will be honest I am not a VB.NET fan, but I have needed to used it quite a bit over the years and I have never come across any specific weakness in VB.NET when it comes to web services. And that is for both ASMX and the WCF tooling.