LINQ supported data types and functions by ThinqLinq

When we were writing LINQ in Action, we weren't able to specify all of the possible methods and functions that have supported query translations for a couple reasons.

1. There were too many to be included in the scope of the book.
2. The book was being written at the same time that LINQ was evolving and more comprehensions were being supported, thus giving us a moving target that we couldn't ensure the accuracy of when the product shipped.
3. We realized that over time, translations for more functions may be added and enumerating the list in the book might not reflect the current methods supported with a given framework version.

As I was searching for an answer to a recent question, I happened upon a listing on MSDN showing the functions and methods which are and are not supported. The full list of LINQ to SQL supported and unsupported members is available online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386970.aspx.

As an example the following methods are shown as having translations for DateTime values: Add, Equals, CompareTo, Date, Day, Month, Year. In contrast methods like ToShortDateString, IsLeapYear, ToUniversalTime are not supported.

If you need to use one of the unsupported methods, you need to force the results to the client and evaulate them using LINQ to Objects at that point. You can do that using the .AsEnumerable extension method at any point in the query comprehension. Any portion of the query that follows AsEnumerable will be evaluated on the client side.