What Do You Need to Know Before You Read This Book?

This book assumes that you know either the Visual Basic .NET or C# programming language. If you are completely new to the .NET Framework, then I recommend that you read an introductory book on either Visual Basic .NET or C# before reading this book.

In the body of the book, all the code samples are presented in Visual Basic .NET. However, this was not intended as any kind of insult to C# programmers. The CD that accompanies this book includes every code sample translated into the C# programming language.

To get the most from the database chapters, you should have some experience working with a database such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or Microsoft Access. You should know how to perform basic database operations with SQL.