Home/ Questions/Q 6566981
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-25T14:16:55+00:00

In our legacy SW we make our own wrapper classes to perform DB command

  • 0

In our legacy SW we make our own wrapper classes to perform DB command and query. Now we want to switch to .NET 4 and want to use LINQ to SQL. But I am not quite sure whether it is mandatory to add a .mdf file to make it work.

Because we have our database service running already, and we would like to keep using the database on it(because our customers would want to keep using their databases), obviously we don’t want to distribute a brand-new database file with our SW. But every article I found about LINQ to SQL says that I need to add a .mdf file to the project to make it work. So how should we do that? Can we use LINQ without assigning any database in the development?

Thanks!

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    LINQ to SQL doesn’t require a local .MDF file in a project to work. You can generate LINQ to SQL classes against an existing remote database. Just connect to the server in the Server Explorer and drag tables to the LINQ to SQL designer.

    Many people use the .MDF file in examples simply because it’s a small, self-contained database. It’s a convenience to the demo, not a requirement.

    Additionally, it’s possible to create a .MDF file with a schema that matches a remote database and work against that file during development but simply switch connection strings to go from a local file to a remote database.

    • 0