ADO.NET

.NET Framework Data Providers

A *.NET Framework Data Provider* establishes connections to a data source and executes (SQL-) statements («commands») on the data source via the connection.

Depending on the data source, a *.NET Framework Data Provider* needs to be chosen. Some commonly seen providers are:

Name	Namesapace	Comments
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server	`System.Data.SqlClient`
.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB	`System.Data.OleDb`
.NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC	`System.Data.Odbc`
.NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle	`System.Data.OracleClient`	deprecated
Oracle Data Provider for .NET	`Oracle.DataAccess.Client`
EntityClient Provider	`System.Data.EntityClient`	connect to Entity Data Models (EDM).
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server Compact 4.0.	`System.Data.SqlServerCe`

The main types/classes in a .NET Framework Data Provider are

Base type	Comment
`System.Data.Common.DbConnection`	establish a connection to a data source and transport data from and to it.
`System.Data.Common.DbCommand`	send commands, typically SQL statements to a database that the client is connect to using a `DbConnection`
`System.Data.Common.DbDataReader`	process a `DbCommand` result set, typically a `select` statement
`System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter`	fills a `System.Data.DataSet` using a `DbConnection` and synchronizes changed data with the data source after updating it in the `DataSet`

A .NET Framework Data Provider typically derives its types from these base classes.

Other relevant types are:

System.Data.Common.DbTransaction
System.Data.Common.DbCommandBuilder
System.Data.Common.DbConnectionStringBuilder
System.Data.Common.DbParameter
System.Data.Common.DbException
System.Data.Common.DBDataPermission (note the uppercase B)

ADO.NET

.NET Framework Data Providers

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