Skip to Content
Programming Visual Basic 2008
book

Programming Visual Basic 2008

by Tim Patrick
May 2008
Intermediate to advanced
784 pages
22h 5m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Programming Visual Basic 2008

Chapter 10. ADO.NET

If you have ever read any programming books related to Microsoft development technologies, you have already read a chapter just like this one. It seems that every Windows programming book has an obligatory chapter on database interaction. The reason for this widespread coverage comes as no surprise: Microsoft comes out with a new database technology every two years or so.

If you are new to Windows development, you haven’t yet been briefed on the following sometimes conflicting, sometimes complementary database interaction tools:

  • ODBC—Open DataBase Connectivity

  • ISAM—Indexed Sequential Access Method

  • DAO—Data Access Objects

  • RDO—Remote Data Objects

  • OLE DB—Object Linking and Embedding for Databases

  • ADO—ActiveX Data Objects

When you look at this list, you might think, “Wow, that’s great. There are so many options to choose from.” You would be foolish to think this. This list isn’t great; it’s terrible. Imagine, just for a moment, that we weren’t talking about database interfaces, but about other, more practical issues. What if you had to replace the engine in your car every two years? What if the steering column had to be replaced annually? What if you had to replace the oil every 3,500 miles or three months, whichever came first? Could you imagine life in such a world?

Whenever Microsoft introduced a new database object technology into the mix, it was quickly followed by a flurry of reprogramming to bring older “legacy” Visual Basic (and other) applications up to the latest ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart

Wei-Meng Lee
Visual Basic 2015 Unleashed

Visual Basic 2015 Unleashed

Alessandro Del Sole

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596518431Errata Page