Home/ Questions/Q 146815
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-11T08:40:14+00:00

I’ve just started using LINQ to SQL on a mid-sized project, and would like

  • 0

I’ve just started using LINQ to SQL on a mid-sized project, and would like to increase my understanding of what advantages L2S offers.

One disadvantage I see is that it adds another layer of code, and my understanding is that it has slower performance than using stored procedures and ADO.Net. It also seems that debugging could be a challenge, especially for more complex queries, and that these might end up being moved to a stored proc anyway.

I’ve always wanted a way to write queries in a better development environment, are L2S queries the solution I’ve been looking for? Or have we just created another layer on top of SQL, and now have twice as much to worry about?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Advantages L2S offers:

    • No magic strings, like you have in SQL queries
    • Intellisense
    • Compile check when database changes
    • Faster development
    • Unit of work pattern (context)
    • Auto-generated domain objects that are usable small projects
    • Lazy loading.
    • Learning to write linq queries/lambdas is a must learn for .NET developers.

    Regarding performance:

    • Most likely the performance is not going to be a problem in most solutions. To pre-optimize is an anti-pattern. If you later see that some areas of the application are to slow, you can analyze these parts, and in some cases even swap some linq queries with stored procedures or ADO.NET.
    • In many cases the lazy loading feature can speed up performance, or at least simplify the code a lot.

    Regarding debuging:

    • In my opinion debuging Linq2Sql is much easier than both stored procedures and ADO.NET. I recommend that you take a look at Linq2Sql Debug Visualizer, which enables you to see the query, and even trigger an execute to see the result when debugging.
    • You can also configure the context to write all sql queries to the console window, more information here

    Regarding another layer:

    • Linq2Sql can be seen as another layer, but it is a purely data access layer. Stored procedures is also another layer of code, and I have seen many cases where part of the business logic has been implemented into stored procedures. This is much worse in my opinion because you are then splitting the business layer into two places, and it will be harder for developers to get a clear view of the business domain.
    • 0