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Written code is simplified: any developer that already knows programming and a querying language like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SQL</a> will find LINQ quite intuitive.&nbsp;

Syntax unification for querying any data source: you can search an XML or JSON document in the same way as a database, a DataSet, an in-memory collection, or any other remote or local data source that has LINQ support.

Strengthens the connection between relational data and the object-oriented world: this is because querying becomes a first-class programming language construct. Queries can be strongly typed and .NET developer tools can be used to create relational object diagrams.

Shorter development time: by catching many errors at compile time it’s easy to spot errors during development. There is also support for <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/using-intellisense" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IntelliSense</a> and <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/debugger/debugger-feature-tour" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debugging</a>.

Cross-platform: EF Core version is a cross-platform framework that can run on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Modeling: EF creates an EDM (Entity Data Model) based on POCO (Plain Old CLR Object) entities with get/set properties of different data types. It uses this model when querying or saving entity data to the underlying database.

Querying: EF allows us to use LINQ queries to retrieve and process data from the underlying database. The database provider will translate LINQ queries to the database-specific query language (e.g. SQL for a relational database). EF also allows us to execute raw SQL queries directly to the database.

Change Tracking: EF keeps track of changes done to instances of entities (property values) that need to be submitted to the database.

Saving: EF executes INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands to the database based on the changes that occurred to entities when you call the context SaveChanges() method. There’s also an asynchronous SaveChangesAsync() version of this method.

Concurrency: EF uses Optimistic Concurrency by default to protect overwriting changes made by another user since data was fetched from the database.

Transactions: EF performs automatic transaction management while querying or saving data. It also provides options to customize transaction management.

Caching: EF includes first-level caching out of the box. So, repeated querying will return data from the cache instead of hitting the database.

Built-in Conventions: EF follows conventions over the configuration programming pattern, and includes a set of default rules which automatically configure the EF model.

Configurations: EF allows us to configure the EF model by using data annotation attributes or Fluent API to override default conventions.

Migrations: EF provides a set of migration commands that can be executed to create or manage the underlying database Schema.

IDEs: Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code

Best-in-class .NET tools and services for any app and any platform.

Wise refactorings. Making your code easier to read and maintain is super easy in VS thanks to its integrated refactoring tools. For instance, you can extract a method or move a type with just a couple clicks.&nbsp;

<a href="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/intellicode/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IntelliCode</a> - it’s IntelliSense on steroids that uses artificial intelligence to suggest code recommendations. The AI is trained\fed with 2,000 open-source projects on GitHub—each with over 100 stars—to generate its recommendations.

Integrated Test environment with Test explorer

Live Share allows sharing a codebase and its context with someone. We get instant bidirectional collaboration directly from within Visual Studio. The person on the other end can read, navigate, edit and debug a project that’s being shared, and do so seamlessly and securely.

Integrated code review using an extension.

Visual Studio marketplace Extensions - allows new features to be added on top of VS.

Extensible: install just the things you need to use

Out-of-the-box tools for developing for the web: JavaScript and TypeScript, JSX/React, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Less, and JSON.

Azure Boards: a place where we can manage a project’s work items, backlogs, sprints, setup customized queries, delivery plans, calendars, etc. Deliver value to users faster using proven agile tools to plan, track, and discuss work across your teams.

Repos: a place where we can manage the actual project’s source code with sections for Files, Commits, Pushes, Branches, Tags and Pull Request. Unlimited, cloud-hosted private Git repos foster collaboration to build better code with pull requests and advanced file management.

Pipelines: a place where we can manage shipping releases. Its sections include Pipelines, Environments, Releases, Library, Tasks Groups, Deployment Groups and XAML. Build, test, and deploy with CI/CD that works with any language, platform, and cloud. Connect to GitHub or any other Git provider and deploy continuously. There are build extensions that allow for a great customization experience.

Test Plans: a place to manage tests targeting the project with Progress report, Runs and Load Test. Test and ship with confidence using manual and exploratory testing tools.

Artifacts: create, host, and share packages with your team, and add artifacts to your CI/CD pipelines with a single click.

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