What lead me to write this application is when i wanted to access the MSAccess database

using c sharp I couldn't get any information material. All the material available on the net is
partial to sql, and hence the purpose we will develop this application in 2 phase First we will
see how to make the database connection to the MSAccess and see what the intricacies of it.
And then we will finish with the application.
Enough of the talking and let us move towards the main topic. The connection to the database
is rather modified as compared with the ADO connection that we had earlier. The following
figure shows the sequence properly (i hope)
OleDbConnection--> OleDbCommand? --> OleDbDataReader?
now those who are familiar with ado will obiviously recognise the simillarity but for some
clarification and for those who are not well versed with ado here is little explanation.

OleDbConnection --> represents single connection to the database, and depending upon the
capabilites of the underlying database it gives you the power to manipulate the database. The
point to remember here is even though oledbconnection object goes out of scope it does not
get closed. And therefore you will have to explicitely call the close() method of the object.

OleDbCommand --> this is our normal command object as we had in ado. You can call sql
stored procedures and sql queries through this object.

OleDbDataReader --> Now this class is of paramount importance since it gives actual access
to the underlying dataset of the database. Once you call the ExecuteReader? method of the
OleDbCommand? it gets created the dotnet beta 2 sdk says not to create the object of this
class directly.

Now you can see more about these main object in .net beta 2 documentation and here is the
source code of how to make the program access the database.

using System;
using System.Data.OleDb;

class OleDbTest{

public static void Main()

{
//create the database connection
OleDbConnection aConnection = new
OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data
Source=c:\\db1.mdb");

//create the command object and store the sql query

OleDbCommand aCommand = new OleDbCommand("select * from emp_test",
aConnection);
try
{
aConnection.Open();

//create the datareader object to connect to table

OleDbDataReader aReader = aCommand.ExecuteReader();
Console.WriteLine("This is the returned data from emp_test table");

//Iterate throuth the database

while(aReader.Read())
{
Console.WriteLine(aReader.GetInt32(0).ToString());
}

//close the reader

aReader.Close();

//close the connection Its important.

aConnection.Close();
}

//Some usual exception handling

catch(OleDbException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error: {0}", e.Errors[0].Message);
}
}
}

The steps involved in running this application successfully

1.create a data base in msaccess called db1.mdb
2.make a table in it called emp_test
3.let it have fields like
emp_code int
emp_name text
emp_ext text
4.save the above code in the sample.cs file
5. make sure the database is on the c:\ and mdac2.6 or later is installed(available in the ms
site)
6. compile and run.
Now lets talk about various details of what we have learned in the constructor of the
oledbconnection you have seen "provider=" stuff. there are following types of drivers which
are compatible with ado.net.
sqlolddb --> Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server,
msdaora --> Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle,
Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 --> OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Jet
you can choose any of then but they will demand different parameters to be passed to then for
example the jet.oledb.. needs the name of the mdb file and sqloledb need the name of the
user and its password.

These all drivers are located in System.Data.OleDb namespace and hence you must include it,
again they are not compatible with oledb provider for odbc. i.e. you can't use these drivers
and try to access database thru you vb6.0 application so don't go finding the references of
these files in c: :-)

Following guidelines are given by Microsoft while choosing the providers SQL Server:

.NET Data Provider Recommended for middle-tier applications using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
or Later.
Recommended for single-tier applications using Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) or Microsoft
SQL Server 7.0 orlater.
Recommended over use of the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) with the OLE DB
.NET Data Provider.
For Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 and earlier, you must use the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server
with the OLE DB.NET Data Provider.
OLE DB .NET Data Provider Recommended for middle-tier applications using Microsoft SQL
Server 6.5 or earlier, or Oracle.
For Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later, the SQL Server .NET Data Provider is recommended.
Recommended for single-tier applications using Microsoft Access databases.
Use of the OLE DB .NET Data Provider with a Microsoft Access database for a middle-tier
application is notrecommended.
Support for the OLE DB Provider for ODBC (MSDASQL) is disabled.

I think i will stop for now and will continue in the (may be) next session the details of the
dotnet Please let me know if code does not run, if it runs :-)