ADO.NET Architecture

ADO.NET Components

      The two main components of ADO.NET 3.0 for accessing and manipulating data are the .NET Framework data providers and the DataSet

.NET Framework Data Providers

The DataSet

ADO.NET architecture

Choosing a DataReader or a DataSet

When you decide whether your application should use a DataReaderor a DataSet , consider the type of functionality that your application requires. Use a DataSet to do the following:

- Cache data locally in your application so that you can manipulate it. If you only need to read the results of a   query, the DataReader is the better choice.
- Remote data between tiers or from an XML Web service.
- Interact with data dynamically such as binding to a Windows Forms control or combining and relating data from multiple sources.
- Perform extensive processing on data without requiring an open connection to the data source, which frees the connection to be used by other clients.

If you do not require the functionality provided by the DataSet, you can improve the performance of your application by using the DataReader to return your data in a forward-only, read-only manner. Although the DataAdapter uses the DataReader to fill the contents of a DataSet by using the DataReader, you can boost performance because you will save memory that would be consumed by the DataSet, and avoid the processing that is required to create and fill the contents of the DataSet.


ADO.NET Requirements

Support for the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK (including ADO.NET) commenced with Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4 with Service Pack 6a, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, and Windows CE.

Note

The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB and the .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC requires MDAC 2.6, and MDAC 2.8 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is recommended. You can download the most recent service packs from the Data Access and Storage Developer Center.


.NET Framework Data Providers (ADO.NET)
 
DataSets (ADO.NET)