This topic links to Help about widely used data access tasks. To view other categories of popular tasks explained in Help, see How Do I in C# Express.
If you are using Visual C# Express Edition, some of the Help links on this page may be unavailable, depending on the options that you chose during installation. For more information, see Troubleshooting Visual C# Express.
Provides steps to install a sample database such as the Northwind sample database, SQL Server Express, SQL Server Compact 3.5, or an Access version of Northwind. (With Visual C# Express Edition your database must be installed on the local computer.)
Provides a step-by-step procedure to create a data application.
Provides information about how to connect your application to data from many different sources, such as databases, Web services, and objects.
Provides a procedure to connect your application to data in Visual Studio by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.
Provides a procedure to connect your application to data in a Web service by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.
Provides a procedure to connect your application to data in an Access database by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.
Explains how to create a typed dataset by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard or the Dataset Designer.
Provides a procedure to create a dataset by using the Dataset Designer.
Provides a procedure to create a data table by using the Dataset Designer.
Explains how to create two data tables without TableAdapters by using the Dataset.
Provides an overview of TableAdapters which provides communication between your application and a database.
Provides a procedure to create a TableAdapter in a dataset by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard. The walkthrough will show you how to create a second query in the TableAdapter by using the TableAdapter Query Configuration Wizard in the Dataset Designer.
Explains how to execute SQL statements or stored procedures against a data source by using TableAdapters or command objects.
Demonstrates how to create a dataset with one data table and fill it with data from the Customers table in the Northwind sample database.
Demonstrates how to create a Windows application that will load XML data into a dataset.
Provides a summary of the tasks, objects, and dialog boxes involved in creating data-bound Windows applications.
Provides a procedure to create a simple form that displays data from a single table in several individual controls.
Provides a procedure to work with data that comes from more than one table, and often, data from related tables.
Shows how to create a query that returns customers in a specific city, and modify the user interface so that users can enter a city's name and press a button to execute the query.
Provides a procedure to display information from one table, depending on the value of a foreign-key field in another table.
Shows how to create a control that implements the DefaultBindingPropertyAttribute. This control is like a text box or check box and can contain one property that can be bound to data.
Shows how to create a control that implements the ComplexBindingPropertiesAttribute. This control contains DataSource and DataMember properties that can be bound to data; similar to a DataGridView, or ListBox.
Shows how to create a control that implements LookupBindingPropertiesAttribute. This control contains three properties that can be bound to data; similar to a ComboBox.
Explains design-time tools for working with custom objects instead of datasets and Web services, as the data source in your application.
Provides a table that contains links to the common tasks associated with editing and querying data in a dataset.
Provides an overview of validating data, which confirms that the values being entered into data objects comply with the constraints in a dataset's schema, and also to the rules established for your application.
Explains how to use the ColumnChanging()()() event to verify that an acceptable value is being entered into the record.
Explains how writing information to the original data source is separate from modifying the data in the dataset.
Explains common methods of concurrency control and specific ADO.NET features for handling concurrency errors.
Provides detailed instructions to execute SQL statements directly against a database by using the DbDirect methods of a TableAdapter.
Contains a procedure to create a Windows application that illustrates catching a DBConcurrencyException, locating the row that caused the error, and one strategy for handling it.
Contains information about all the dialog boxes and wizards that you use when you design data access in your applications.
Provides information about ADO.NET data-adapter objects and how to work with them in Visual Studio.
Provides background information about LINQ queries.
Provides examples of the basic LINQ query clauses.
Provides information about query expressions in C#, with examples and pointers to additional documentation.
Shows how to split text files on arbitrary boundaries and performing queries against each part.
Shows how to use the Except method to retrieve the items that are in one file but not the other.
Shows how to treat a string as an IEnumerable object.
Shows how to create an entity class and execute a simple query.
Shows how to add, update, delete and modify data in a database.
Shows how to query across tables that have been mapped into a hierarchical object relationship.
Introduces the object-relational mapping concepts in LINQ to SQL.
Shows how to use stored procedures in LINQ to SQL.
Shows how to represent primary keys in LINQ to SQL.
Shows how to display and view the SQL that is generated and issued to the database by the LINQ to SQL runtime.
Shows how to sort and group by composite key values.
Shows how to issue SQL commands instead of a LINQ query.
Shows how to control namespace prefixes in LINQ to XML.
Shows how to retrieve a collection of elements in LINQ to XML.
Shows how to retrieve the value of an element in LINQ to XML.
Shows how to filter on elements in LINQ to XML.
Shows how to retrieve elements at a specified depth.
Shows how to retrieve a single child element.
Shows how to retrieve a collection of attributes.
Shows how to retrieve a single attribute.
Shows how to retrieve the value of an attribute.
Shows how to use a query to output a type that differs from the input type.
Shows how to join two XML files or streams into one.
Describes how to load data into a dataset.
Describes how to perform queries against a single table in a dataset.
Describes how to perform queries across multiple tables in a dataset.
Describes how to perform queries against typed datasets.
Provides many examples of how to perform various query operations such as restriction, projection, ordering, partitioning, and so on.
Describes how to add a new or existing SQL Server Compact 3.5 database to a Windows-based application.
Describes how to configure deployment for a Windows-based application that includes a SQL Server Compact 3.5 database.
Provides step-by-step details for incorporating a SQL Server Compact 3.5 database in a Windows-based application and configuring the application for deployment.
Explains how to use .NET Framework languages and the Transact-SQL programming language to create database objects such as stored procedures and triggers, and to retrieve and update data for Microsoft SQL Server databases.
Provides step-by-step instructions for the following:
Creating a stored procedure in managed code.
Deploying the stored procedure to a SQL Server database.
Creating a script to test the stored procedure on the database.
Query data in the database to confirm that the stored procedure executed correctly.
Explains what the O/R Designer is and provides information about the tasks you can accomplish with it.
Describes how to add an empty LINQ to SQL file to a project.
Describes how to create entity classes that are mapped to tables and views in a database.
Describes how to create DataContext methods that run stored procedures or functions when they are called.
Describes how to configure a DataContext method to use stored procedures when saving data from entity classes back to a database.
Describes how to turn on and off the automatic renaming of classes that are added to the O/R Designer.
Describes how to configure entity classes by using single-table inheritance with the O/R Designer.
Provides step-by-step instructions for designing entity classes by using the O/R Designer and for displaying data on a Windows Form.
Provides step-by-step instructions for configuring entity classes by using single-table inheritance with the O/R Designer.
These Web sites are excellent resources for finding more information, seeing what other Express users are doing, and stay in touch as Visual C# Express grows.
Serves as a central location for information about Visual C# Express Edition. Includes videos, new tools, and other downloads.
Serves as a central location for learning materials for the beginner developer. Includes video tutorials, articles, the How-To Reference Library, and Kid's Corner.
Includes lots of articles and coding tips for the Visual C# Express developer.