Special Edition Using Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET

Understanding DataSets

One of the big advances in ADO.NET is the introduction of a new class called the DataSet . In a multi-tier application, data can extracted from a source database, stored in a DataSet, and passed among the tiers. A DataSet is more powerful than an ADO Recordset because it can contain multiple tables and be aware of the relationships between them. It is never connected to an underlying database, making it ideal for disconnected data applications. In a sense, the DataSet is almost like a portable database unto itself. With all this power comes added complexity, so if you are used to previous data structures (such as the ADO Recordset) you may have to learn a few new things. In this section, we will show you how to get records ...