Beginning C# Databases: From Novice to Professional

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to Databases!
Review: If you are new to working with database servers this is a great place to start. It begins by showing you how to install MSDE and takes you all the way through developing windows and web applications that access the Northwind database. There is a lot of code in the book but when you're beginning, you need to look at code. The full source is listed and then it takes you step by step to show you what it's doing.

Definitely download the code samples. There are a couple of great tools. If you don't have access to SQL Enterprise Manager, you will find them very useful!

The book flows from topic to topic very smoothly and stays on the subject. It is such an easy read. It will definitely stay in my library as a reference on SQL Server.


Rating:
Summary: use relational and OO databases
Review: The databases referred to in the title are mostly SQL databases. The authors explain how with the advent of .NET and C#, Microsoft overhauled the entire database accessing, into as simple a usage as possible. To this end, they give prominent place to ADO.NET, which wraps access to various types of databases, like Oracle and Microsoft's own SQL Server. So that your C# code can stay as independent of the underlying choice of database as possible.

You might actually appreciate this book more if you have had the dubious pleasure of using the earlier ADO in pre .NET, to get at your database. Now, ADO.NET lacks the grubby ActiveX and appears to be much more elegant and powerful.

Not the least of which is the book's delving into the XML capabilities of ADO.NET. You can now in C# read and write data files in XML. Basically, you have an object oriented database, instead of those other relational databases, where you commit directly to the filesystem. But if you get a fully fledged object oriented database like Versant, then your C# code can very easily match to it.

Rating:
Summary: Nice introduction through stored procedures
Review: There is a nice introduction in this book that sets up the basics of .NET access right in the first chapter. It then drills into ADO.NET, commands and finally into readers. There are a few chapters on Windows Forms and ASP.NET before the author gets into stored procedures. These could probably have been dropped, but they don't distract too much. The section on stored procedures is a little scanty.

Definitely a good book for someone just starting with database access in .NET who wants a step-by-step walkthrough. There is a small section on database fundamentals, but I wouldn't look to the book to teach you that. Best to get a book on database basics if you don't understand the fundamentals.