to work with data in the form of domain-specific objects and properties, such as customers and customer addresses, without having to concern themselves with the underlying database tables and columns where this data is stored. With the Entity Framework, developers can work at a higher level of abstraction when they deal with data, and can create and maintain data-oriented applications with less code than in traditional applications. LINQ to SQL LINQ to SQL (formerly called DLINQ) allows LINQ to be used to query Microsoft SQL Server databases, including SQL Server Compact databases. Since SQL Server data may reside on a remote server, and because SQL Server has its own query engine, it does not use the query engine of LINQ. Instead, the LINQ query is converted to a SQL query that is then sent to SQL Server for processing. Since SQL Server stores the data as relational data and LINQ works with data encapsulated in objects, the two representations must be mapped to one another. For this reason, LINQ to SQL also defines a mapping framework. The mapping is done by defining classes that correspond to the tables in the database, and containing all or a certain subset of the columns in the table as data members. References External links ADO.NET for the ADO Programmer ADO.NET Connection Strings Data management .NET Framework terminology Microsoft application programming interfaces Microsoft free software SQL data access ADO.NET Data Access technologies Software using the MIT license Windows-only free software