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Database Access via C# ADO.NET

  • Jul 2, 2009
Having trouble getting off the ground with ADO.NET, and C# in particular? You don't have to be a DBA to get great results with this interesting technology.
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Databases and Object-Oriented Languages

Before minicomputers and PCs came along, the world of IT was simpler. Back then, it was thought that only the very largest of organizations would ever need computing technology. Fast-forward to 2009, when we all have mobile phones with enough computing power to send a rocket to the moon. Nowadays, computing power, software, storage, and bandwidth are all commodity items. However, there still is precious little unity in the computer industry. Interestingly, this lack of a single universal platform has probably done a great deal to foster creativity and invention in the broader industry. In terms of software standards, we have an impressive list of choices; just look at the vibrant open source movement and hugely popular platforms such as Linux and the iPhone. If we had only one operating system and one main programming language, there would be less competition—which usually also means less choice.

Even the world of relational databases offers a wide variety of competing products. Programmatic access to these database products also presents many choices—Java Persistence API (JPA)/Hibernate, C++, C#, Java, and so on. In this article, we'll examine C#, and the ADO.NET technology in particular, to see what this technology set offers to the discerning programmer. If you're not too familiar with databases, don't worry—we'll take it from the ground up.

NOTE

The source code for this article is available for download as a single C# solution for Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. If you want to run the code yourself, just unzip the files into a folder such as C:\dbcode. Then open the solution file called DBConsoleApplication.sln in Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. This action will automatically build the source code and produce the necessary executable artifacts.

Let's wade in and deploy a database product.

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