Wrox - Professional ADO.NET

ADO.NET is a large set of .NET classes that enable us to retrieve and manipulate data, and update data sources, in very many different ways. As an integral part of the .NET framework, it shares many of its features: features such as multi-language support, garbage collection, just-in-time compilation, object-oriented design, and dynamic caching, and is far more than an upgrade of previous versions of ADO.

This book provides a thorough investigation of the ADO.NET classes (those included in the System.Data, System.Data.Common, System.Data.OleDb, System.Data.SqlClient, and System.Data.Odbc namespaces). We adopt a practical, solutions-oriented approach, looking at how to effectively utilize the various components of ADO.NET within data-centric application development. download

Designing Relational Database Systems

Relational databases are tricky beasts. Other kinds of commercial software are infinitely easier to understand. Word processors are really just high-tech typewriters, and it's pretty clear that the backspace key beats that little jar of white stuff cold. Spreadsheets present a familiar enough paradigm, even to non-accountants, and email is close enough to the postal system for the model to be comprehensible.

Databases are different. Other kinds of software have a real-world analogy. Sometimes, as in the Windows desktop, the analogy is a little tenuous, but the analogies are close enough; you can get there from here. But relational databases are completely artificial. They're like geometry, they can be used to build models of the real world, but they don't exist in the real world. When was the last time you poured some wine for you and your sweetie and went out on the front porch to watch the geometry frolic on the lake? download