Summary

In this chapter, you learned about ADO.NET data providers and some of the objects in the System.Data Framework classes. We covered the following topics:

• How to select the correct .NET data provider for your database.

• How to create a Connection object with an appropriate connection string and how to control connection pooling.

• How to create Command objects and how to use appropriate methods for different types of database queries.

• How to use a DataReader to access rows of data returned from a database query. How to move through the data in a forward-only, read-only fashion and how to retrieve individual column values. How to access multiple resultsets in a single DataReader.

• How to use the ExecuteNonQuery and ExecuteScalar methods to run queries that do not return rows of data.

• How to use Visual Studio .NET to create, edit, and test stored procedures.

• How to call stored procedures with the ADO.NET Command object, using the Parameters collection to pass input parameters and retrieve output parameters and return values.

• How to use the new ADO.NET Transaction object to coordinate multiple database updates in the same procedure.

• How to handle data access exceptions when an error occurs.