Visual Basic Concepts

Interacting with Data in a Microsoft Jet/Microsoft Access Database

Many data access applications created with earlier versions of Visual Basic store and manage data using the Microsoft Jet database engine, the engine used by Microsoft Access. These applications use Microsoft Data Access Objects (DAO) to access and manipulate data.

Now you can use Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) to easily manipulate data in a variety of database formats, including Microsoft Jet format. You may still want to use DAO to work with your local Microsoft Jet databases, but for new applications you'll probably want to use ADO and the new data access features of Visual Basic.

Topics

This series of topics shows you how to use ADO and these new data access features to create a simple database application that interacts with data in the Northwind Traders sample database (Nwind.mdb). It demonstrates how to:

• Create a connection to a Microsoft Access database file

• Create a data environment Command object

• Create a simple data-bound form

• Create a data grid form based on a query

• Create a master/detail form

• Create a data-bound report