Hour 20. Working with Typed DataSets

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Hour 20. Working with Typed DataSet s

ADO.NET code has made some great strides forward in the context of typing. One such major stride is in the ability to access the data held in the DataSet through a "strongly typed" metaphor. This may not seem like such a big deal at first glance, but when compared to the old " weakly typed" approach of vintage ADO, it is more than a pleasure to work with. In particular, you can now access the typed DataSet 's tables and columns with more simplified and user -friendly code. Using typed DataSet s also yields better code coming out of the chute because any previously unknown runtime typing issues come out at compile time and not at runtime (as runtime errors, nasty indeed!). Microsoft also throws in the XML Schema Definition tool (XSD.exe ”as part of the .NET Framework SDK) that generates typed DataSet s and has embedded the process of generating typed DataSet s as standard practice in Visual Studio .NET. The rest is up to you.

In this hour, you will learn the following topics:

• A more detailed discussion of the typed DataSet

• How to generate typed DataSet s with XSD.exe

• How to generate typed DataSet s in VS .NET

• Using annotations with typed DataSet s for even better code

• Typical programming with typed DataSet s

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