Visual Basic Express and Databases – the easy way

For this tutorial, we’re going to create a simple Address Book project. The
names and addresses will come from a Microsoft Access database. Download the
database before starting these lessons. Once you have saved the database to
your own computer, you can begin.

VB.Net allows you many ways to connect to a database or a data source. The
technology used to interact with a database or data source is called ADO.NET.
The ADO parts stands for Active Data Objects which, admittedly, doesn’t
explain much. But just like System was a Base Class (leader of a hierarchy,
if you like), so is ADO. Forming the foundation of the ADO Base Class are five
other major objects:

Connection
Command
DataReader
DataSet
DataAdapter

We’ll see just what these objects are, and how to use them, in a later section.
But we can make a start on the ADO.NET trail by creating a simple Address Book
project. All we’ll do is see how to use ADO to open up the database you
downloaded, and scroll through each entry.

What we’re going to be doing is to use a Wizard to create a programme
that reads the database and allows us to scroll through it. The wizard will
do most of the work for us, and create the controls that allow users to move
through the database. The Form we create will look like this when it’s finished:

By clicking the buttons at the top, you can scroll through the database in the
image above. We’ll make a start in the next part.

NOTE: 2019 users may need to download some data components. (But try
the tutorial, first, to see if it works.) Click on Tools from
the menu at the top, then Get Tools and Features. When you see
the dialog box, put a tick in the box for Data storage and processing.
Click the Modify button to install.

Click here to start your .NET Database project — >