Chapter 11: Database Controls and Objects

Overview

The Windows forms controls described in Chapter 9 allow the application and the user to communicate. They let the application display data to the user, and they let the user control the application.

Visual Basic’s database controls play roughly the same role between the application and a database. They move data from the database to the application, and they allow the application to send data back to the database.

Database programming is an enormous topic, and many books have been written that focus exclusively on database programming. This is such a huge field that no general Visual Basic book can adequately cover it in any real depth. However, database programming is also a very important topic, and every Visual Basic programmer should know at least something about using databases in applications.

This chapter explains how to build data sources and use drag-and-drop tasks to create simple table-and record-oriented displays. It also explains the most useful controls and objects that Visual Basic provides for working with databases. Although this is far from the end of the story, it will help you get started building basic database applications.

Tip 

Note that the example programs described in this chapter refer to database locations as they are set up on my test computer. If you download them from the book’s web site (www.vb-helper.com/vb_prog_ref.htm), you will have to modify many of them to work with the database locations on your computer.