Connecting to Data in Visual Studio

Visual Studio provides tools to connect your application to data from many different sources, such as databases, services, and objects. Connections to data are created either programmatically (in code), as the result of dropping data objects onto a form or component designer, or through the completion of one of the data wizards. The following topics explain how to create connections to databases, services, and objects from your application.

In This Section

• How to: Connect to Data in a Database
  Describes how to create a connection between your application and a database using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.

• How to: Connect to Data in a Service
  Describes how to create a connection between your application and the data returned from a Web service using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.

• How to: Connect to Data in Objects
  Describes how to databind to property values in objects using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.

• How to: Save and Edit Connection Strings
  Describes how to save and modify connection information in your application.

• Connecting to Data in Windows Forms Applications
  Provides information about connecting your Windows Forms applications to data with design time tools.

Reference

• ADO.NET
  Describes the ADO.NET classes, which expose data-access services to the .NET programmer.

Related Sections

• Add/Modify Connection Dialog Box (General)
  Provides information on the dialog boxes that are used to create and modify database connections.

• Connecting to a Data Source (ADO.NET)
  Describes the ADO.NET connection object and how to use it to connect to a data source.

• ADO.NET Entity Data Model Tools
  Describes how to use the Entity Data Model Tools, which are provided by the Entity Framework, to create applications.

• Data Binding (Silverlight)
  Provides information on data binding in Silverlight applications.

• Data Binding (WPF)
  Provides information on data binding in WPF applications.

• Data in Office Solutions
  Contains links to topics that explain how data works in Office solutions, including information about schema-oriented programming, data caching, and server-side data access.