Summary

This chapter's goals were as follows :

• To explore basic data access with text files

• To learn about data repositories

• To work with metadata as data

This chapter was all about discussing data. I started the data discussion using reflection as a theme . Interestingly, I ended the chapter using the same theme. Of course, the first case was that of reflecting back to the mainframe types of data access to contrast them with the newer .NET approaches. The latter case for reflection was that of the Reflection namespace found in the .NET Framework for metadata support. In the middle of the chapter, I presented data repositories as a type of data.

In the next chapter, you will take a turn toward relational data. The support available in .NET for database programming is astonishing. Several .NET Framework namespaces await you. Additionally, you will learn about SQL Server data storage and retrieval, the GUI tools that you will use as a developer, and the ADO.NET technology.