ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

by Bill Hamilton (Author)
Key Phrases: binding data, asynchronous processing, merging data, Initial Catalog, Data Set, Solution Use (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This guide is strikingly different from other books on Microsoft ADO.NET. Rather than load you down with theory, the new edition of ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook gives you more than 200 coding solutions and best practices for real problems you're likely to face with this technology using Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET 3.5 platform. Organized to help you find the topic and specific recipe you need quickly and easily, this book is more than just a handy compilation of cut-and-paste C# code. ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook also offers clear explanations of how and why each code solution works, and warns you of potential pitfalls so you can learn to adapt the book's problem-solving techniques to different situations. This collection of timesaving recipes covers vital topics including: Connecting to data Retrieving and managing data Transforming and analyzing data Modifying data Binding data to .NET user interfaces Optimizing .NET data access Enumerating and maintaining database objects Maintaining database integrity Ideal for ADO.NET programmers at all levels, from the relatively inexperienced to the most sophisticated, this new edition covers the significant 3.5 upgrade, including new programming tools such as LINQ. ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook offers a painless way for those of you who prefer to learn by doing when it comes to expanding your skills and productivity.

About the Author
Bill Hamilton is a software architect specializing in designing, developing and implementing distributed applications using .NET and J2EE technologies. Over the last ten years, he has provided consulting services in B2B, B2C, B2E, data integration, and portal initiatives for banking, retail, accounting, manufacturing, and financial services. An early technology adopter, he frequently evaluates, recommends, and helps his clients use new technologies effectively. Bill has designed and helped build several award winning software packages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 980 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (March 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101406
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101404
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #57 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Databases
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• This is item 1 in The O'Reilly Cookbooks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from a tech reviewer, April 14, 2008

By	Louis Franco (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(Full Disclosure: I was a tech reviewer for this book and received a free copy)

I've been using the various incarnations of Microsoft data access technologies for quite some time and have been using ADO.NET for a few years, so I wondered whether I was going to learn anything new from this book. It covers all of the territory to get started (connection strings, basic usage of ADO.NET classes, etc.), but what I really appreciated was that it topics that advanced ADO.NET users would find useful and I certainly learned a few new tricks.

The topic on writing provider and database independent code (Section 10.22) which covers how to do it right if you are targeting .NET 1.1 (which we do) was particularly useful to me. Chapter 10 (Optimizing .NET Data Access) is just generally a good chapter no matter what your level and covers asynchronous SQL calls (executing and cancelling), ASP.NET data caching, paging queries, SQL Server stored procedure debugging and more.

Since my job was to actually run every code snippet, I can vouch for their quality. Most are built off the AdventureWorks sample database that comes with SQL Server Express, so they are ready to run. The rest come with full DDL to create what you need (databases, stored procedures, etc), and the code and SQL is available online so you don't have to type it in.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from a "professional" reviewer, May 31, 2008

By	Michael Taylor "C# MVP" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a review by a "technical expert". I really liked how the book was laid out with a problem-solution-reasoning approach (known as a recipe). Each one was generally useful for those unaware of how to do things in ADO.NET. The examples were short and too the point. The topics were quite varied so just about everyone will find something in this book. In particular the recipes on getting schema information programmatically will really benefit a lot of people because it is neither common nor easy.

I had only a few complaints about the book. The first complaint is with the title. It says ADO.NET v3.5 but in reality almost all the recipes cover any version of ADO.NET from v2 on. This might cause some people to shy away from the book. This book is really for anybody using ADO.NET.

This leads me to the second complaint. There really was no 3.5 content mentioned. LINQ and SQL 2008 were mentioned a few times but they aren't specific to ADO.NET v3.5. LINQ itself seemed out of place for the topic.

The final complaint I had was that the recipes are mostly designed to be copy and pasted into working code. The code samples don't really follow what I would consider an appropriate pattern for professional code. Therefore simply copy/paste will cause more problems than not. It really would have required no additional lines of code and would not have complicated things to have "done it right". Still this seems to be standard practice for most technical books so I can't harp too much.

Overall I recommend this book for anyone who works with (or will) ADO.NET of any version.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource For .NET DB Developers, June 12, 2008

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The 'ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook' is a great resource for every .NET database developer out in the world. With 950+ pages of content you will not be reading thin, as this goodies book comes with 222 tidbits of information that will help you in your everyday work.

Subjects covered include:

- connecting to a variety of data sources
- working with disconnected data objects (datasets)
- querying data
- executing functions and stored procedures
- using LINQ
- searching and filtering data
- adding and updating data
- copying/transferring data
- database integrity
- binding data to web forms
- XML data
- optimizing .NET data access
- debugging stored procedures
- doing batch updates
- enumerating SQL servers
- SQL Server CLR integration

I feel that is an outstanding companion book for .NET database developers that are looking for a resource that specifically outlines tasks into a neat, organized manner. Instead of thumbing through a book to figure out a particular way to do something, these common tasks and questions are broken up for ease of use and efficiency. If you are a .NET DB developer you definitely owe it to yourself to add this great book to your collection of technical books immediately.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED