GetField() and SetField() for LINQ to SQL

LINQ To DataSet has GetField() and SetField() methods. We can pass them the name of field to get / set the value of the field. If we look at LINQ to SQL, we are not able to find out any equivalent methods like that.

To work around and get this functionality, there is a workaround. This workaround involves our time tested reflection technique. The vb code for this is as follows:

Dim myConnectionString as string = ""    'assign connection string here
Dim columnName as string = ""    'assign column name here

Using db as new myDataContext(myConnectionString)
   Dim myValues = (From customer in Customers Select customer.GetType().GetProperty(columnName).GetValue(customer, nothing))
End Using

Here we have used GetProperty() method to get the PropertyInfo object. PropertyInfo is defined in System.Reflection namespace.

Though we are getting this great flexibility but this flexibility is coming with a cost. If you use SQL debug visualizer to look at the SQL resulting with the above LINQ query, you will realize that the resulting SQL select all column from the database instead of just that column specified in GetProperty() method. This is an additional cost other than the runtime cost associated with reflection.