DATA POINTS: DataSet and DataTable in ADO.NET 2.0

摘要

ADO.NET 2.0 sports some exciting enhancements to the core classes found in ADO.NET 1.x and introduces a variety of new classes, all of which promise to improve performance, flexibility, and efficiency. There have even been some major changes throughout the lifecycle of the pre-beta and beta versions of ADO.NET 2.0, such as the improvements to the new batch updating process. With the final release of ADO.NET 2.0 fast approaching and the feature set becoming more stable, it's time to take a closer look at what's in store. This month I will begin by exploring the improvements to the DataSet and DataTable classes, what they mean to you, and when you might want to use them. Sometimes in ADO.NET 1.x, especially when working with large rowsets, you can experience performance problems. I'll discuss how some of these performance issues have been addressed in ADO.NET 2.0 by changes to the indexing engine. I'll review the features that have been added to the DataTable class, as well as the loading options through the new Load method and the new methods that change a row's state. In the next installment of this column, I will discuss other improvements, such as the ability to perform batch updates, compressing DataSets for transport using binary serialization, and more.