Chapter 20: Data Access with ADO.NET

Main Page

    What Are Databases?
    Accessing Data with the Server Explorer
    Accessing Data with Data Adaptors and Datasets
    Working with ADO.NET
    Overview of ADO.NET Objects
    Immediate Solutions: Using Basic SQL
    Using the Server Explorer
    Creating a New Data Connection
    Dragging Tables from the Server Explorer to a Form
    Creating a Dataset
    Populating a Dataset
    Displaying Data in a Data Grid
    Selecting a Data Provider (SQL Server, MS Jet, and so on)
    Data Access Using Data Adapter Controls
    Previewing Data from Data Adapters
    Examining Dataset Properties
    Examining Dataset Schema
    Connecting to an MS Jet Database
    Using Relational Databases
    Adding Multiple Tables to a Dataset
    Using Data Views

In Depth

This is our first chapter on databases, one of the biggest topics in Visual Basic programming. In this and the next chapter, I'll take a look at handling databases with visual tools, and in the chapter following, I'll take a look at handling databases in code, using Visual Basic objects.