Download FileDb LinqPad driver If you haven't yet discovered LinqPad and you are using LINQ, you need to know that its a very cool LINQ query tool.  Its also a C#/VB/F# scratchpad which instantly executes any expression, statement block or program with rich output formatting.  LinqPad standard edition is free, and for a small fee you can have the full version which enables Autocompletion.  This tool is used by many developers around the world - including at Microsoft. We have written a LinqPad driver for FileDb.  Now you can query FileDb database files in LinqPad just as you would a SQL Server database.  For example, to query for and display all Customers you would use this LINQ query:

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var q = from c in Customers select c; q.Dump();

To select specific fields, you use [] either by ordinal index or field name.

var q = from c in Customers select new {     CustomerId = c["CustomerID"],     CustomerName = c["CompanyName"] } q.Dump();

The screenshot below shows LinqPad with a FileDb connection open and a query joining 3 tables, Customers, Orders and OrderDetails.  Notice the automatic formatting of the output.
 

Installing the FileDb LinqPad Driver

Download the Zip file and unzip it to a folder.  Of course you must also download/install LinqPad.  Once you have done this, open LinqPad and click the "Add Connection" link in the Connections list.  You will be presented with the "Choose Data Context" dialog shown below.

Click the "View more Drivers" button at the bottom left (circled red).  You will then be presented with the "Choose a Driver" dialog, shown here.

Click the "Browse to a .LPX file" button at bottom left.  This will open a browse dialog allowing you to find and select the FileDbDynamicDriver.lpx file in the folder where you have unzipped it.

Now you're ready to begin using FileDb with LinqPad.  You will now see the FileDb Driver in the "Choose Data Context" dialog.  When you select it and click Next, you will see the FileDb Connection dialog, shown here.

In the Zip file download, there is included the Northwind database files and some some LinqPad script files.  Browse to the folder where you unzipped these files and select the Northwind Database folder.  Your dialog should now look like the screenshot above.  Click OK and you are ready to begin querying the Northwind database tables.  Use the sample script files to help you get started.