Essential ADO.NET

2.6. Layout of the Managed Data Classes

Now that you've completed a quick overview of the .NET data and XML classes, let's see how they are arranged in terms of assemblies and namespaces.

The core assembly for data access is System.Data.dll, which contains the System.Data namespace and its sub-namespaces, shown in Figure 2-6. The System.Data namespace contains DataSet and its subsidiary classes as well as all the enumerations, such as CommandType, used in the data provider classes. System.Data also contains all the interface definitions—for example, IDbConnection—used in data providers. System.Data.dll contains four other namespaces. System.Data.Common contains a few base classes that are used in the OleDb and SqlClient data providers, such as ...