Pro ADO.NET 2.0

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting practical information about ADO.NET 2.0. The book is focused on practical tips and tasks and is written in a friendly and understandable tone. It has excellent explanations, an outstanding layout of the various topics and is NOT affected by Microsoft marketing at all - at least from my perspective (buyer and reader of a lot of books on Microsoft technologies) it seperates smoke from the fire and presents things as is. The book does not require prior experience in ADO.NET 1.1, but outlines differences between 1.1 and 2.0 at each step. The thing that separates this book from others is that it makes advanced topics very easily understandable to people who are not experts in ADO.NET.

This book has both C# and VB.NET examples. The author thoroughly covers ever aspect of ADO.NET 2.0. He covers the ADO.NET Object Model, Connection Objects, Object-Oriented vs. Relational Representation, DataSets, The DataAdapter, Mapping, Editing Disconnected Data, Conflict Detection and Concurrency Resolution, Transactions, SQL Server Native XML Support, CLR in SQL Server, T-SQL vs. SQLCLR vs. Extended Stored Procedures, and Caching Data. Everything he covers is very thorough and includes examples. The style he writes in flows very well.

Pro ADO.NET 2.0 is about half the thickness of an older book it replaces on my bookshelf, yet delivers higher quality content, better code examples, and more best practices. It has a very comfortable and easy-to-follow writing style that gets you up to speed quickly on the fundamentals and then hits you with best practices, do's and don'ts, and advanced scenarios. It is evident from the examples and recommendations in the book that the author is an actual developer solving real-world problems on a day-to-day basis. Pro ADO.NET 2.0 starts out with the basics: ADO.NET Object Model, Connected vs. Disconnected ADO.NET, and the different players in each category (Connections, DataReaders, DataSets, etc.). It provides a concise and meaningful description of these objects as opposed to regurgitating MSDN documentation and every last property or setting. Examples are provided throughout the book in both C# and VB.NET mentioning both SQL Server and Oracle. The examples cover the basics and provide "templates" of how the ADO.NET code should flow in your own programs. Once the fundamentals are described, the author goes further and discusses more advanced, real-world scenarious as well as the do's and don'ts. The focus on best practices and advanced scenarios in Pro ADO.NET 2.0 deserves a special note. Many books in the past on ADO.NET just bore you with too many details on the object model and basics that don't help much in the real world. Sahil has taken the book to a much more useful and practical level by helping you avoid pitfalls and explaining how and when to use the most advanced topics, such as transactions, SQLCLR, concurrency in multiuser applications, etc. The last chapter focuses on ADO.NET Best Practices. Here is where we get into some discussions that are usually heavy battles on blogs, such as DataReader vs. DataSet, Objects vs. DataSets, etc., as well as good discussions on Transactions, Caching, Datasets / Typed Datasets, etc. Sahil does a good job of introducing these topics and providing some real-world thoughts and avoiding all the non-objective junk that goes along with it.

From start to finish, Sahil knocked the ball out of the park. This book serves as a definitive guide to ADO.NET 2.0 and manages to hold the readers interest throughout. Over and over again, he drills down into the more challenging areas that developers have to deal with and gives a ton of real world advice on it. The ADO.NET coverage is obviously a little more in depth than the XML coverage, but that's totally to be expected. A few areas that really stick out are Transactions (which has been dramatically changed in the 2.0 Framework) both simple and distributed. He does a great job of explaining all the jargon in an easy to understand way. Connection Pooling is another (less sexy but every bit as important) area that stands out. So many people get into trouble here and he covers all of the why's so well that there's no room for any ambiguity. I also really liked his discussion of 'Cowboy' type connections - you'll have to buy the book to see what I'm talking about though. I thought his first ADO.NET book was as good as they get and he repeated his success here. Wonderful from start to finish.

I have been reading this book for just over a week, and am thrilled with the content. The book takes the reader on an enlightening journey to "planet ADO.NET," starting out at 30,000ft and descending into greater depth of knowledge as the reader approaches the surface. This book caters to developers who have no ADO.NET experience and those with extensive experience. Sahil is ahead of the technology curve. I am excited to read his book about the new version of ADO.NET 2.0, while the technology is still in prerelease. Those of you looking to get ahead in the new version - which includes new features, such as improved data access, provider factories, bulk import, MARS, SQL CLR, and better transaction management, but to name a few - would do good to read this book. Both C# and VB9 code examples are included throughout the book, and Sahil does a great job of presenting both SQL Server and Oracle details in his text. The quote on the front cover of this book reads, "The only ADO.NET book you will ever need" - I cannot think of a truer statement.