Is LINQ an Object-Relational Mapper?

Question

Is LINQ a kind of Object-Relational Mapper?

Answer 1

LINQ in itself is a set of language extensions to aid querying, readability and reduce code. LINQ to SQL is a kind of OR Mapper, but it isn't particularly powerful. The Entity Framework is often referred to as an OR Mapper, but it does quite a lot more.

There are several other LINQ to X implementations around, including LINQ to NHibernate and LINQ to LLBLGenPro that offer OR Mapping and supporting frameworks in a broadly similar fashion to the Entity Framework.

If you are just learning LINQ though, I'd recommend you stick to LINQ to Objects to get a feel for it, rather than diving into one of the more complicated flavours :-)