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 ...