ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers [Paperback]

William R. Vaughn (Author), Peter Blackburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002 | ISBN-10: 1590590120 | ISBN-13: 978-1590590126

Written specifically for COM-based ADO developers retooling for ADO.NET using the C# language, this book brings fresh insights and tips on the ADO.NET technology. Veteran authors William Vaughn and Peter Blackburn have packed this formative guide with practical advice on how to write code that is both faster running and easier to understand.

The onset of the new .NET technology is forcing developers to completely rethink their data access strategies. This book helps you to do this through working examples and numerous discussions of what works and what doesnt. Derived from years of experience working with data access developers, ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers includes a set of techniques proven to drastically reduce overhead, problems, and confusionfor the devleoper, the system, and the entire team. While some are quite simple to implement, others require considerable forethought to enable. This is a developers bookfull of hints, tips and notes passed on from those whove spent significant time in the .NET and C# trenches.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing ADO.NET
2. ADO.NET—Getting Connected
3. ADO.NET Command Strategies
4. ADO.NET DataReader Strategies
5. Using the DataTable and DataSet
6. Filtering, Sorting, and Finding
7. ADO.NET Update Strategies
8. ADO.NET Constraint Strategies
9. ADO.NET Exception Management Strategies
10. ADO.NET and XML

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For anyone who programs with databases in the new .NET in C#, ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers shows you what works and what doesn't when it comes to Microsoft's latest APIs for working with databases. Filled with practical advice and recommended "best practices," this concise and useful book offers some valuable advice for anyone working with ADO.NET.

While many C# titles cover Microsoft's .NET Framework in its entirety, the focus on the APIs and programming strategies for databases makes this one a standout. This edition of the book is actually a rewrite of William Vaughn's older title, ADO Examples and Best Practices, but it adopts the same focus in showing how to do the job right when it comes to databases. The authors are clear about relating what's new and improved with ADO.NET compared to the earlier COM-based standard (referred to here as "ADOc"). Early sections delve into connecting to ADO.NET data sources (using SQL Server and ODBC).

The focus on "best practices" for fast, correct code begins with a full tour of using Command objects in ADO.NET, with hints for getting to parameters in SQL code (including stored procedures). A winning feature here is the information on Visual Studio .NET wizards for programming with database objects. (The wizard support is surprisingly powerful, and the authors show you how to start with wizard-generated code and then customize it yourself.)

The fastest way to get to data in ADO.NET is arguably using a DataReader class. Coverage here is followed by a richer tour of the options using DataTable and DataSet, which allow you to define new table structures, including relational data and disconnected data sets. Good features in this text are the authors' benchmarks for determining how to dig into ADO.NET collections to quickly find individual column data within a record. (Certain coding conventions here can really ruin performance, and you'll learn what to avoid.)

The book rounds out with a tour of XML support available in ADO.NET, including how to pass data in and out of databases through XML. A useful example that shows a Web service exposing a bit of ADO.NET database code will let you extend your ADO.NET programs across servers. A brief introduction to the relevant standards in Web services like SOAP will help you understand what goes into Web services.

Databases are a part of most every business application, so .NET developers will need to master new APIs and programming strategies in a hurry. This title fits the bill, with a handy and fast-moving tutorial that will get you going confidently with .NET and databases. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: COM-based ActiveX Data Objects (ADOc) and ADO.NET compared; overview of ADO.NET classes and features (including XML support, data providers, disconnected data sets); connecting to data with SQL, ODBC, and ADOc data providers; using ADO.NET command objects in detail (including stored procedures and IDE support); using the ADO.NET DataReader object for fast, read-only queries; using the DataTable and DataSet objects (including building tables on the fly); filtering, sorting, and searching techniques with ADO.NET (including the DataView object); updating data with ADO.NET (adding, editing and deleting rows, validation, update strategies, using identity fields); using .NET constraints (including unique and foreign key constraints; DataRelation objects); structured exception handling with ADO.NET; XML support in ADO.NET (including DataSet XML features, DiffGrams, XML Schema); a Web service example with XML and a data set; SOAP explained; benchmark data for best practices with ADO.NET; using the DataAdapter Configuration Wizard (DACW) and other Visual Studio .NET wizards.

About the Author

Peter D. Blackburn is chief executive officer of Boost Data Ltd., and chief technology officer of International Network Technologies Organization Ltd. Peter studied computer science at Cambridge University in England and has worked for the last 12 years as lead consultant developer on corporate and local government distributed database systems. He has led and trained teams working with nearly all the Microsoft data access technologies, in addition to having designed and implemented heavy-duty custom-built distributed client/server databases using open source D-ISAM on UNIX platforms.

William (Bill) Vaughn is an industry-recognized author, mentor and subject-matter expert. He's been in the computer industry for over 30 years—he's worked with mainframe, minicomputer, and personal computer systems as a developer, manager, trainer, marketer, support person, and writer. After 14 years at Microsoft, Bill stepped away to work on his books and training seminars. His area of specialization is focused on data access and especially Visual Basic and SQL Server. He's written six editions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server (Microsoft Press) and two editions of ADO.NET and ADO Examples and Best Practices for Visual Basic Programmers (Apress). There's even a C# version: ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers (Apress). Bill is a top-rated speaker and frequents conferences all over the world, including VSLive, Developer Connections, and PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server). He's also written a wealth of articles for magazines such as SQL Server Magazine, Visual Basic Programmer's Journal, .NET Magazine, and many others. Bill is working on content focusing on the .NET Compact Framework and SQL Server CE, as well as the next version of SQL Server. He's available for consulting or custom training.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Apress (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590590120
• ISBN-13: 978-1590590126
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,769,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Vaughn (1947-) was born to a military family and spent the first forty years of his life moving from base-to-base and city-to-city. He learned German in Wiesbaden, Spanish in El Paso and Thai in Bangkok. After travelling the world on business trips and speaking tours, he finally settled in Redmond, Washington in 1986. More recently, Bill has turned his talents to fantasy fiction. "The Owl Wrangler" is his newest creation. An early manuscript was characterized as "...another Watership Down" by his college writing professor. He enjoys writing, photography and sharing his experiences with anyone who'll listen. Bill is the father of two wonderful daughters and has two granddaughters who gave him inspiration for more than one of his books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but mis-titled IMO, July 24, 2003

By 

Christopher Scott (Frisco,TX) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers (Paperback)

The authors' expertise in the subject is clear. These guys have been doing this for a long time, and know it inside and out (or at least as well as can be expected at the time of writing). It reads really well, and their added insight is great.

My major issue with the book is that it really should have been titled "ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers Who Are Already Experts in ADO Using SQL"

Basically if you aren't interested in the differences between ADO and ADO.NET, you'll find yourself skipping over quite a few sections. I got the feeling that I was reading stuff like this a lot - "This isn't any different than ADOc (how he refers to COM based ADO) so we'll just skip over that and get to what's different." Or - "Here is a comparison of how these ADO properties map to their ADO.NET equivalents."

In addition, if you are looking for info specific to anything other than SQL server, you may be disappointed. The book just makes minor mention of OLEDB.

If these issues aren't a concern for you, consider this a 5 star rating.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Books in One, August 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers (Paperback)

The book is divided into two major sections - the "old" ADO and ADO.NET. Bill covers both of these in great detail. The ADO coverage has been enhanced since the first edition. The ADO.NET stuff blew my mind. I'm new to .NET. I was expecting to learn just ADO.NET. I was happily surprised to learn not only that but also the pitfalls to avoid when coding VB.NET. That was a bonus.

The IMHO sections had much to offer. Too many books just give you the techie stuff. It's nice to get an honest opinion from someone who's "been there". He goes beyond that, too. Throughout the book, there are "Best Practices" icons to point you to the stuff you really need to know.

This book has code - lots of it. Every example is right there on the CD. It doesn't stop there, however. Bill shows you the turns and twists of the Visual Studio .NET IDE, making it an essential reference for any serious coder.

The book is written with the intermediate to advanced reader in mind. Even though I'm more like an experienced newbie, I still got a lot out of it. I'm less intimidated by .NET than I was going in.

Bill Vaughn has done a great job. I'll give up this book when you pry it from my cold dead hands. :-)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, Goes Beyond The Online Documentation, April 15, 2002

By 

Stephen Szyszkiewicz (Delran, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers (Paperback)

I would recommend this book, like other Bill Vaughn (BV) books, after you have been messing around with the technology (ADO.NET) for a little while. That is you should struggle with your own app for a couple of days first then pick up this book. If you are brand new to ADO.NET, and programming against databases in general, I would look elsewhere for an introductory book, but would come back to this book after you feel you have mastered the fundamentals. The feeling you get when reading this book is similar to playing a video game then going back and reading the manual that came with it. "Oh thats what THAT does" is a common feeling that I had. BV does an excellent job of going beyond the documentation, and the book comes with a CD loaded with code, but unless you have a laptop to look at it, say while you are at a conference, it is hard to appreciate the code in its entirety. Where BV thinks it is important to show actual code in the text, there are snippets that fill in the blanks nicely. I also liked the IMHO boxes that appear everywhere. In fact thats the first thing I read in each chapter to give me a flavor of what was in store. The book is primarily written from the point of view of you being the programmer talking to the data source directly and exposing the data source to interested clients. That is you are either the middle tier programmer or the client in a client server world.

My only complaint is that the book spends an amazing amount of time explaining how ADO (ADOc) is alike/different from ADO.NET. This is useful if you are an accomplished ADOc programmer, but utterly useless if you are starting from scratch with ADO.NET. This is, apparently, how BV learns and teaches new stuff. That style was evident when he first started writing about ADO when RDO was on the way out. It is an excellent way to learn new technology if you knew the old technology, but a hindrance if you knew little or nothing about the old subject matter.

Oh and by the way Bill......i will always call close on my SQLConnection objects. I got the message!