Applied XML Programming for Microsoft® .NET

Conclusion

In ADO.NET, XML is much more than a simple output format for serializing data. You can use XML to streamline the entire contents of a DataSet object, but you can also choose the actual XML schema and control the structure of the resulting XML document.

There are several ways to persist a DataSet object’s contents. You can create a snapshot of the currently stored data using a standard layout referred to here as the ADO.NET normal form. This data format can include schema information or not. Saving to the ADO.NET normal form does not preserve the state of the DataSet object and discards any information about the previous state of each row. If you want stateful persistence, resort to the DiffGram XML format. DiffGrams are the subject ...