LINQ in Windows Store App

Introduction

I hope all of you become familiar with the new technology LINQ (Language Integrated Query) that is used instead of SQL. It works for all type of data Source. In this article we are going to implement LINQ in a Metro style application and use a list of a Books class as a data source. The front end for showing the information in a XAML page uses a GridView control.

In the following we are including the entire code of the XAML file and the code behind file to create this mini application. 

Step 1 : First, you will create a new Metro Style Application. Let us see the description with images of how you will create it.

• Open Visual Studio 2012
• File -> New -> Project
• Choose Template -> Visual C# -> Metro Style Application
• Rename the application

Step 2 : In the Solution Explorer there are two files that we will primarily work with; the MainPage.xaml and MainPage.xaml.cs files.

Step 3 : The MainPage.xaml file is as in the following code:

Code :

<Page

    x:Class="App1.MainPage"

    IsTabStop="false"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:local="using:App17"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    mc:Ignorable="d">

 

    <Grid Background="Red">

        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

            <ColumnDefinition Width=".333*"></ColumnDefinition>

            <ColumnDefinition Width=".233*"></ColumnDefinition>

            <ColumnDefinition Width=".233*"></ColumnDefinition>

            <ColumnDefinition Width=".333*"></ColumnDefinition>

        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height=".083*"></RowDefinition>

            <RowDefinition Height=".033*"></RowDefinition>

            <RowDefinition Height=".333*"></RowDefinition>

            <RowDefinition Height=".133*"></RowDefinition>

            <RowDefinition Height=".333*"></RowDefinition>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="3"

                   Text="LINQ in Metro Style Application" FontSize="30"

                   FontWeight="ExtraBold">

        </TextBlock>

        <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" Text="Title of the Book"

                   FontSize="20" FontWeight="ExtraBold">

        </TextBlock>

        <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Grid.Row="1" Text="Releasing Date of the Book"

                   FontSize="20" FontWeight="ExtraBold">

        </TextBlock>

        <GridView x:Name="gridview1" FontSize="10" FontWeight="Bold" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="2" >

        </GridView>

        <GridView x:Name="gridview2" FontSize="10" FontWeight="Bold" Grid.Column="2" Grid.Row="2" >

        </GridView>

    </Grid>

</Page>

Step 4 : Add the class Books.cs to our project to be used as the data source:

Code :

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

 

namespace App1

{

    class Books

    {

        public string ID { get; set; }

        public string Title { get; set; }

        public decimal Price { get; set; }

        public DateTime DateOfRelease { get; set; }

 

        public static List<Books> GetBooks()

        {

            List<Books> list = new List<Books>();

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "001",

                Title = "Programming in C#",

                Price = 634.76m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2010-02-05")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "002",

                Title = "Learn Jave in 30 days",

                Price = 250.76m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2011-08-15")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "003",

                Title = "Programming in ASP.Net 4.0",

                Price = 700.00m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2011-02-05")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "004",

                Title = "VB.Net Made Easy",

                Price = 500.99m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2011-12-31")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "005",

                Title = "Programming in C",

                Price = 314.76m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2010-02-05")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "006",

                Title = "Programming in C++",

                Price = 456.76m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2010-02-05")

            });

 

            list.Add(new Books

            {

                ID = "007",

                Title = "Datebase Developement",

                Price = 1000.76m,

                DateOfRelease = Convert.ToDateTime("2010-02-05")

            });

            return list;

        }

    }

}

 

Step 5 : The MainPage.xaml.cs file is as in the following code:

Code :

 

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.IO;

using System.Linq;

using Windows.Foundation;

using Windows.Foundation.Collections;

using Windows.UI.Xaml;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Primitives;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Data;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Input;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Media;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Navigation;

 

namespace App1

{

    public sealed partial class MainPage : Page

    {

        public MainPage()

        {

            this.InitializeComponent();

            show();

                  }

        protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)

        {

           

        }

        public void show()

        {

            List<Books> books = Books.GetBooks();

            var Btitles = from b in books select b.Title;

            gridview1.ItemsSource = Btitles;

            var Rdate = from b in books select b.DateOfRelease;

            gridview2.ItemsSource = Rdate;

        }

       

    }

}

Step 6 : After running this code the output looks like this: