Data Binding

In FoxPro, when you change a field's value on a screen and the corresponding data field in the underlying table is changed, you're taking a lot for granted. What's happening is called data binding.

Visual Basic .NET doesn't have data binding to the data store. Not really. What Visual Basic .NET does have is binding to the dataset, the XML string that holds the data you got from your data source. Assume you've built a form with a text box on it and then returned a typed dataset. (See Chapter 4, “A Visual Basic .NET Framework,” for more information on the Customers table containing Phone fields.) Select the text box on the form, press F4 to open the Properties window, and click on the plus sign beside the Databindings property to open the two fields under the heading. Select Text, and then select Customers.Phone from the list of available dataset classes that automatically appears.