You won't get far as a C# developer unless you know how to write database applications.

That's where this book comes in. It shows you how to use Visual Studio 2008 and ADO.NET 3.5 to develop database applications the way the best professionals do.

That includes the full gamut of skills you need, from using prototyping features that generate ADO.NET code...to writing your own ADO.NET code from scratch so you can closely control how the database processing works...to using .NET 3.5 features like LINQ and the ADO.NET Entity Framework that actually change the way you think about handling data.

What this book covers
You'll begin by learning how to prototype Windows applications using drag-and-drop tools like data sources. That gets you off to a fast start!

However, the code that's generated by RAD tools like these isn't easily reusable, maintainable, or scalable. So next, you'll learn how to create 3-layer applications, writing your own, more flexible ADO.NET 3.5 code.

Then, you'll get a practical course in using LINQ to work with data from a wide variety of sources using the same basic set of C# code. To be specific, the 6-chapter section in this book teaches you how to use LINQ to Objects, LINQ to DataSet, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, and LINQ data source controls for web applications.

Finally, you'll get started using the Entity Framework. EF provides a flexible model for mapping the business objects in a database application to database objects, and it generates a lot of the code that you'd have to write from scratch otherwise. It's a huge subject, but the 4-chapter section in this book gives you the background and experience you need to see its potential and start using it on your own.