LINQ to Objects LINQ to XML LINQ to Entities

Context: LINQ works on different data sources: in‑memory collections (LINQ to Objects), XML documents (LINQ to XML), and databases via Entity Framework (LINQ to Entities).

// LINQ to Objects
var numbers = new[] { 1, 2, 3 };
var even = numbers.Where(n => n % 2 == 0);

// LINQ to XML
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("data.xml");
var names = from e in doc.Descendants("Person") select (string)e.Element("Name");

// LINQ to Entities (EF Core)
var active = dbContext.Customers.Where(c => c.IsActive);

Real-world usage example

Unified query experience: The same query patterns work across all sources, reducing learning curve.

Example: Microsoft documentation shows examples for each provider.

Related sections

• 8.3.1 In memory collections
• 8.3.2 XML
• 8.3.3 EF Core SQL translation