ADO.NET :: Classes for communicating with database

Classes for communicating with database

The Connection, Command, DataReader, and DataAdapter

objects are the core elements of the ADO.NET provider model.

Object	Description	SqlClient Objects	OleDb Objects
Connection	Establishes a connection to a specific data source.	SqlConnection	OleDbConnection
Command	Executes a command against a data source.	SqlCommand	OleDbCommand
DataReader	Reads a forward-only, read-only stream of data from a data source.	SqlDataReader	OleDbDataReader
DataAdapter	Populates a DataSet and resolves updates with the data source.	SqlDataAdapter	OleDbDataAdapter

Each provider may have classes equivalent to above objects. The name of the classes vary slightly to represent the provider type appropriately.

Depending on the type of database you work on, you will have to choose either OleDb or SqlClient (or, some other provider) objects. Since all our samples use MS Access database, we will be using OleDb objects in all the samples. If you like to use SqlServer, you just need to replace the OleDb objects with the equivalent SqlClient objects.