How to Use This Book

This book is divided into three parts. In Part 1, "Introduction to ADO.NET and Databases," you'll learn everything you need to know about databases. You'll also be introduced to ADO.NET, which enables your C# programs to interact with a database. In Part 2, "Fundamental Database Programming with ADO.NET," you'll learn the C# programming with ADO.NET from the ground up. In Part 3, "Advanced Database Programming with ADO.NET," you'll go beyond the basics to learn programming techniques needed by professional database developers.

The following sections describe the chapters in detail.

Part 1: "Introduction to ADO.NET and Databases"

In Chapter 1, "Introduction to Database Programming with ADO.NET," you'll see how to use ADO.NET in a C# program to interact with a database. You also learn about Microsoft's RAD tool, Visual Studio .NET. Finally, you'll see how to use the extensive documentation from Microsoft that comes with .NET and SQL Server.

In Chapter 2, "Introduction to Databases," you'll learn the details of what databases are and how they are used to store information. You'll see the use of a SQL Server database named Northwind. This database contains the information for the fictitious Northwind Company, which sells food products. This database is one of the example databases that is typically installed with SQL Server.

In Chapter 3, "Introduction to the Structured Query Language," you'll learn how to use the Structured Query Language (SQL) to access a database. You'll see how you use SQL to interact with the Northwind database, and how to retrieve and modify information stored in that database.

In Chapter 4, "Introduction to Transact-SQL Programming," you'll be introduced to programming with Microsoft's Transact-SQL. Transact-SQL enables you to write programs that contain SQL statements, along with standard programming constructs such as variables, conditional logic, loops, procedures, and functions.

In Chapter 5, "Overview of the ADO.NET Classes," you'll get an overview of the ADO.NET classes. You'll also see a C# program that connects to a database, stores the rows locally, disconnects from the database, and then reads the contents of those local rows while disconnected from the database. This ability to store a local copy of rows retrieved from the database is one of the main strengths of ADO.NET.

In Chapter 6, "Introducing Windows Applications and ADO.NET," you'll be introduced to Windows applications. A Windows application takes advantage of displaying and using the mouse and keyboard for input. Windows provides graphical items such as menus, text boxes, and radio buttons so you can build a visual interface that will be easy to use. You'll see how to build Windows applications that interact with the Northwind database.

Part 2: "Fundamental Database Programming with ADO.NET"

In Chapter 7, "Connecting to a Database," you'll learn the details on connecting to a database. There are three Connection classes: SqlConnection, OleDbConnection, and OdbcConnection. You use an object of the SqlConnection class to connect to a SQL Server database. You use an object of the OleDbConnection class to connect to any database that supports OLE DB (Object Linking and Embedding for Databases), such as Oracle or Access. You use an object of the OdbcConnection class to connect to any database that supports ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). Ultimately, all communication with a database is done through a Connection object.

In Chapter 8, "Executing Database Commands," you'll learn the details on executing database commands. You use a Command object to execute a SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement. You can also use a Command object to call a stored procedure, or retrieve all the rows and columns from a specific table.

In Chapter 9, "Using DataReader Objects to Read Results," you'll see how to use a DataReader object to read results returned from the database. You use a DataReader object to read rows retrieved from the database using a Command object.

In Chapter 10, "Using DataSet Objects to Store Data," you'll learn how to use a DataSet object to store results returned from the database. DataSet objects allow you to store a copy of the tables and rows from the database, and you can work with that local copy while disconnected from the database.

In Chapter 11, "Using DataSet Objects to Modify Data," you'll examine how to modify the rows in a DataSet and then push those changes to the database via a DataAdapter.

In Chapter 12, "Navigating and Modifying Related Data," you'll delve into the details of how you navigate related data in tables, make changes in that data in memory, and finally push those changes to the database.

In Chapter 13, "Using DataView Objects," you'll see how to use DataView objects to filter and sort rows. The advantage of a DataView is that you can bind it to a visual component in a Windows or ASP.NET application.

Part 3: "Advanced Database Programming with ADO.NET"

In Chapter 14, "Advanced Transaction Control," you'll delve into advanced transaction control using SQL Server and ADO.NET.

In Chapter 15, "Introducing Web Applications: ASP.NET," you'll learn the basics of ASP.NET, and you'll see how to use Visual Studio .NET to create ASP.NET applications.

In Chapter 16, "Using SQL Server's XML Support," you'll learn about SQL Server's extensive support for XML. You'll also see how to store XML in a C# program using XmlDocument and XmlDataDocument objects.

In Chapter 17, "Web Services," you'll learn how to build a simple web service, which is a software component that may be used across the Web. For example, you could build a eb service that allows one company to send another company an order across the Web using XML.




Mastering C# Database Programming
Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse: Leveraging the Business Intelligence Capabilities of SAP NetWeaver
ISBN: 0764596373
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 181

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