method is called to return the number of found values。 The following sections present examples of using the extension methods with LINQ。 They are in the LINQExamples project； which is a console application。 ■Note In all of the examples； I have taken shortcuts for simplicity。 So you will see some coding practices that are not remended； such as creating public data members and not using properties。 Selecting and Altering Data When running a LINQ query； the data that you filter and manipulate does not need to stay in its original form。 Let’s say that you have a list of customers； and you have identified a set of customers who deserve more loyalty points。 You want to select those customers； increment their points； and then return the list of altered customers。 To do that； you can mix LINQ with the extension methods。 Consider the following simplified customer declaration。 Class Customer Public Identifier As String Public Points As Integer Public Overrides Function ToString（） As String Return 〃Identifier （〃 & Identifier & 〃） Points （〃 & Points & 〃）〃 End Function End Class A list will be created with two customers； where one customer has no points and the other one does。 Here is the source code to create that list： …………………………………………………………Page 431…………………………………………………………… CH AP T E R 1 5 ■ L E A R N I N G A B OU T L I N Q 409 Private Function CreateList（） As Customer（） Return New Customer（） ｛ _ New Customer（） With ｛。Identifier = 〃Person 1〃； 。Points = 0｝； _ New Customer（） With ｛。Identifier = 〃Person 2〃； 。Points = 10｝｝ End Function The customers that have enough points are selected and rewarded with extra points。 To do that； use the following LINQ statement。 Function Increment（ByVal pCustomer As Customer； ByVal index As Integer） _ As Customer pCustomer。Points ＋= 5 Return pCustomer End Function Sub CountCustomers（） Dim points = （From customer In CreateList（） _ Where customer。Points 》 5 _ Select customer）。Select（AddressOf Increment） Console。WriteLine（〃Count is （〃 & points。Count（） & 〃）〃） End Sub The LINQ query is bined with a modification operation。 The LINQ statement that uses From； Where； and Select is not new。 New are the parentheses enclosing the LINQ statement。 By using a set of parentheses； you are identifying the LINQ statement as an object that references a result set。 In the example； the method called on the LINQ statement is Select（）。 Using the Select（） method； each item in the result set is iterated and passed as a parameter （pCustomer） to the lambda expression （Increment（））。 Passed with the item is the index of the item in the list。 The role of the lambda expression is to do something with the item and return what should be used as a basis for another list。 In the example； an instance of the type Customer is passed in to Increment（）； and an instance of type Customer is passed out。 But before the instance is returned； it is manip ulated to get an additional five bonus points。 What might concern you is that there is no test to check if the customer actually warrants earning five bonus points。 That would be a concern if you were not using the LINQ expression。 The LINQ expression is responsible for filtering out only those customers who should get the additional bonus points。 Thus； when the method Select（） is called； you are 100％ sure that only the customers who should get bonus points actually get bonus points。 Think of this as building a pipeline of manipulations。 Selecting with Anonymous Types The Select（） method and statement are used to generate a result set after finding a particular element。 As demonstrated in the previous section； a Select statement is used to generate a new result set。 For example； what if you want to find all of the customers who fulfill a certain crite rion； but do not want to copy all of the associated data？ You might want only the customer identifier and accumulated points。 To do that； you could modify the Select（） part of the LINQ statement to return a new type that you declare dynamically。 The following is the previous example rewritten to use an anonymous type。 …………………………………………………………Page 432…………………………………………………………… 410 CH AP T E R 1 5 ■ L E A R N I N G A B OU T L I N Q Function Increment2（ByVal pCustomer As Customer； ByVal index As Integer） pCustomer。Points ＋= 5 Return New With ｛。identifier = pCustomer。Identifier； _ 。points = pCustomer。Points｝ End Function Sub CountCustomers2（） Dim points = （From customer In CreateList（） _ Where customer。Points 》 5 _ Select customer）。Select（AddressOf Increment2） Console。WriteLine（〃Count is （〃 & points。Count（） & 〃）〃） End Sub In the example； the Return statement in the Increment2（） method uses the keyword New without a type identifier； but with the syntax of an object initializer。 This is defining an anony mous type。 An anonymous type is an object instance that has no explicitly named type。 The anonymous type has properties； but it does not have methods。 Anonymous types are useful only in the context of the method in which they are declared。 The var