Summary

Connected classes, also known as provider classes, are responsible for movement of data between the data store and the disconnected classes. A valid DbConnection object is required to use most of the primary provider classes.

SQL Express is an excellent database server for development because the .mdf database file can be placed into the project and the file can be configured to be copied to the output folder every time the application is built and run.

You use the DbCommand object to send an SQL command to a data store. You can also create parameters and pass them to the DbCommand object.

The DbDataReader object provides a high-performance method of retrieving data from a data store by delivering a forward-only, read-only, server-side cursor.

The SqlBulkCopy object can be used to copy data from a number of sources to a SQL Server table.

You can use the DbDataAdapter object to retrieve and update data between a DataTable and a data store. The DbDataAdapter can contain a single SelectCommand for read-only data, or it can contain a SelectCommand, InsertCommand, UpdateCommand, and DeleteCommand for fully updatable data.

The DbProviderFactory object helps you create provider-independent code, which might be necessary when the data store needs to be quickly changeable.

You can use the DbProviderFactories object to obtain a list of the provider factories that are available on a computer.