LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework comparison and correlation

Both LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework are object-relational mapping techniques that contain LINQ functionality. The essential difference between them is that EF does a better job of decoupling the database schema from the type of our query. With EF, the object we're querying is no longer a C # class that exactly corresponds to the database schema, but rather a higher-level abstraction: the Entity Data Model. This gives us extra flexibility, but it also has a loss of performance and simplicity.

LINQ to SQL was developed by the C # team and published in the. NET Framework 3.5, while the entity Framework was developed by the ADO Team and published as part of the. NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Since then, LINQ to SQL was taken over by the ADO team, with the result: in. NET 4.0, ADO. NET team is more focused on EF improvements, which is relatively much smaller than LINQ to SQL improvements.

LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework have strengths, and LINQ to SQL is a lightweight ORM framework designed to provide fast application development for Microsoft SQL Server databases, with the benefits of ease of use, simplicity, and high performance. The advantage of the Entity Framework is that it provides better flexibility for creating mappings between database Schemas and entity classes, and it supports third-party databases in addition to SQL Server through the provider.

One very popular improvement of EF 4.0 is that it now supports almost the same query functionality as LINQ to SQL. This means that our linq-to-db query in a series of articles can be applied to both EF 4.0 and l2s. Also, this makes L2S the ideal technology for learning to use LINQ to query a database because it preserves the simplicity of object relationships, and the same query principles and techniques we learn apply to EF as well.

Description: LINQ is recommended under. NET 3.5, which has full support for mature LINQ, and using EF is recommended for use with. NET 4.0 (VS2010), which has a mature and complete EF

	LINQ to SQL	Entity Framework
Complexity of	Relatively non-complex	Relatively complex
Model	Domain model	Conceptual Data Model (conceptual)
Database server	SQL Server	Multiple database Products
Development time	Rapid Application Development	Takes a long time, but supports more features
Inherited	Difficult	Easy
File type	DBML file	EDMX,CDSL,MSL,SSDL file
Complex Type Support	Not supported	Support
Query capabilities	by DataContext	ESQL, Object Services, Entity Client
Performance	Slow first Query	The first query is also slow, but overall excellent with LINQ to SQL
Perfect	No more new versions	and a new version.
Generating a database from a model	Support	Not supported

complexity: More features are more complex to support. LINQ to SQL supports fewer features, so it's relatively less complex, and EntityFramework supports more features, so it's relatively complex.

Model: LINQ to SQL provides a one-to-one mapping between a data table and a class. If you have customers,orders, and lineitems tables, you will have Customer,order, and LineItem classes to match each table. EntityFramework allows you to have a customer class, and this class can match multiple tables. This means that the company name can be in one table, but the address is in another table, and the phone number is in another table, and so on.

Database server: LINQ to SQL supports only Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and later versions, but even SQLServer2000 has many limitations. EntityFramework can support IBMDB2, Sybase Sqlanywhere, Oracle, Sqlazure, and many others.

Development Time: LINQ to SQL is easy to learn and fast to develop, but LINQ to SQL has some limitations that can create problems when developing more complex applications. EntityFramework is more capable, although learning and application is slower, but support for more features makes it possible to minimize problems when developing more complex applications.

Inheritance: LINQ to SQL supports TPH, while EntityFramework supports TPH and TPT, and is partially supported for TPC.

file type: the LINQ to SQL uses a Database markup Language (DBML) file that contains XML to map entity and data tables. EntityFramework uses four files. The first one is the entity Data Model (EDMX), which is used in the designer. The edmx file produced the other three files at the time of compilation. The first of the other three files is the Conceptualschema definition Language (CSDL) file, which contains the XML definition of the conceptual model. The second is a schemadefinition Language (SSDL) file that contains the definition of the storage model. The third file is the mapping specification Language (MSL) file, which contains a mapping between the conceptual model and the storage model.

Complex Type support: For example, a customer has a phone number, but you want the phone number to be defined as country code, area number, city area code, number, and extension number. Linqto SQL does not support this complex type, while EntityFramework supports it.

Query Ability: LINQ to SQL queries the database through DataContext. EntityFramework is queried through the ObjectContext through linqto entities. The Entity framework also provides ESQL, a SQL-like query language that is ideal for defining queries in model definitions. EntityFramework also contains the ObjectQuery class for object services to dynamically create queries at run time. The final entityframework also contains Entityclientprovider, which is used to query the conceptual model.

Performance: LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework are slow to execute queries for the first time, but later performance is more satisfying. EntityFramework performance is slightly better than linqto SQL.

Perfect: Microsoft has stopped releasing new LINQ to SQL after releasing the Entity Framework, but because of the simplicity of Linqto SQL it is still popular, so Microsoft will continue to support and feedback to linqto SQL users. However, Linqto SQL will no longer publish a new version for refinement.

To generate a database from a model: LINQ to SQL does not have the ability to generate a database from a model. The Entity framework supports two types of development patterns, database first and coding first. The database is first developed and the database already exists, so it is not necessary to generate the database from the model. Coding takes precedence, you create your model first, and then the database is generated by the model.

LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework comparison and correlation