Chapter 16. Database Connectivity

Microsoft ADO.NET is the .NET equivalent of the JDBC API and provides the programmer with consistent access to a variety of data sources. Most commonly, these will be SQL-based relational databases, but they can also be other tabular data sources, such as flat files and spreadsheets. ADO.NET consists of two major components:

• Data Provider

  The Data Provider includes the functionality required to manage a data source, including connection management, transaction support, and data retrieval and manipulation. The Data Provider also acts as a source of data to higher-level data manipulation components such as the DataSet.

• DataSet

  The DataSet is a disconnected, in-memory cache of data. The DataSet provides a simplified relational data model in which data from multiple sources can be loaded and manipulated. Data can be written from a DataSet back to the original data source or forwarded to another component for further processing.