Creating and using databases under vb.net

[John Dann]

Apologies if this isn't the best group - maybe someone can suggest a
more appropriate one - I can't immediately see anything on ado.net.

I need to store a significant amount of data (say 1-10MB) in a
database that will be created and accessed under vb.net purely on a
local PC from a Windows Forms application.

While I'm happy dealing with data in general, I've just never had the
need to create and use databases before so I'm starting from a low
base on this topic.

Can anyone suggest a suitable book to get me started please? Let me
qualify that a bit. There are seemingly hundreds of books around on
SQL, ado.net and so on, but from an initial perusal these nearly all
seem to focus on getting access to data in a corporate context from
some massive central pre-existing databases. There's a vast and
bewildering amount of information in such texts but much of this will
I suspect be irrelevant to my current project. What I'm looking for
is:

1. An introduction to using simple databases under vb.net purely in
the context of a local PC running a Home version of Windows. I'm not
interested (for now at least) in use across a LAN or across the web.

2. An emphasis on creating the database and adding data to it from
within vb.net as well as getting data out of it once it's been
created. (So many tutorials just take creation of the database for
granted and ignore teaching this aspect)

3. Being able to create a redistributable application that won't
require the enduser to licence or buy any major SQL tool.

Is there anything out there that might fit the bill?

TIA
John Dann

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Hi John,

On first sight I thought the newsgroup
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet.

However reading more I think that this newsgroup is a more properiate
newsgroup for you because it is not the database itself however how to use
it in your applications.

For that reason I do not point you on books, because they point you on that
what you as you said not intrested in, (When you becomes so far than there
are in this newsgroups are only two names, Sceppa an Vaughn).

Have a start with this resourcekit, it is a hugh amount of data, however
there are so many walkthrougs and samples in it, that is is a very good base
to learn as well to check things up.

VB.net Resource kit
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/vbrkit/default.aspx

And if you have problems installing the resource kit
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/vbrkit/faq/#installvdir

I hope this helps?

Cor

 

[Andre Nogueira]

You can use Access or MSDE.
Access is the best if you don't know much about databases, and is very
simple to use.
You just need to distribute the Access file with your application, so you
don't have to pay any licences. The other person does not even need to have
Access installed.
Then all you have to do is connect to the Access database instead of those
"massive central pre-existing databases" and use your own tables.
Some training on Access can be found at
http://office.microsoft.com/training/courselist.aspx?CategoryID=CR0618294010
33&CTT=4&Origin=ES790000501033
About suggesting a book, I suggest MasteringT Visual Basic® .NET Database
Programming from Sybex.
http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/4f481ae27bdb062488256cc500004f50/15c20f7
888ac38ae88256bca006276fa!OpenDocument
But it's really up to you. Some people prefer a given method of learning,
some prefer another. See many different books and choose one that fits your
way of learning and objectives.

Andre Nogueira