Beginning VB 2008 Databases: From Novice to Professional

Beginning VB 2008 Databases teaches you everything you need to know about relational databases, SQL, and ADO.NET 2.0, giving you a sound start in developing console and Windows database applications. The book also includes chapters on the SQL Server XML data type and the LINQ enhancements to the next version of Visual Basic.

In addition to teaching you database basics like using SQL to communicate with databases, this book provides you with detailed, code-practical techniques to access data in Visual Basic 2008 across a range of coding situations. Code-heavy and full of practical detail, this book has been fully revised and upgraded for .NET 3.5 and offers you the best contemporary practice in this core programming area, so that you’ll find yourself using it in nearly all your .NET projects.

• Provides step-by-step instructions on how to install and configure necessary tools
• Presents all essential SQL query and update concepts and syntax, so you don’t need prior familiarity with relational databases or SQL
• Describes how to use ADO.NET transactions, exceptions, and events
• Covers ADO.NET features for handling XML, text, and binary data within a Visual Basic 2008 context
• Explains all concepts through straightforward code examples

• How relational databases work and how to use them
• How Visual Basic uses ADO.NET to access databases
• How to write stored procedures in T-SQL and call them from Visual Basic programs
• How to use XML in database applications
• How to use LINQ to simplify VB database programming
• How to install SQL Server 2005 Express and use it to teach yourself databases by doing databases

Beginning VB 2008 Databases is for every VB programmer. Database programming requires relatively little knowledge of VB but a lot of knowledge about relational database concepts and the database language SQL. This book assumes no prior database experience and teaches you, always through hands-on examples, how to create and use relational databases with SQL and how to access them with VB. Almost every application needs to access a database, and this book teaches all the fundamentals you may ever need to develop professional database applications.

Beginning VB 2008 Databases is for every VB programmer. This book assumes no prior database experience, and teaches, always through hands-on examples, how to create and use relational databases with the standard database language SQL and how to access them with VB. Almost every application needs to access a database, and this book concisely teaches all the fundamentals needed—and most that are ever needed—to develop professional database applications.

Vidya Vrat Agarwal is a Microsoft .NET purist. He started working on Microsoft .NET with its 1st beta release. He has been involved in software development, evangelism, consultation, corporate training, and T3 programs on Microsoft .NET for various employers and corporate clients. Vidya is a published author for Apress titles Beginning C# 2008 Databases, Beginning VB 2008 Databases, and Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008. He is also a technical reviewer of many books published by Apress.

Vidya works with Lionbridge Technologies (Nasdaq:LIOX) as a Technical Architect. He lives with his wife, Rupali, and daughter, Pearly. Vidya runs a Bellevue .NET User Group, www.BellevueDotNet.com, and blogs at http://dotnetpassion.blogspot.com.

James Huddleston has worked with computers since 1974, specializing in database design and development since 1980. He has a bachelor's degree in Latin and Greek from the University of Pennsylvania and a juris doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh. A technical reviewer of dozens of computer books, including Beginning C# Objects: From Concepts to Code, he finds databases an endlessly fascinating area of work and almost as intellectually rewarding as his hobby: translating Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" from the original Greek.