Managing Your Records: Using Data in Your Program

Most programs use data in one way or another. For example, in an earlier lesson, you entered data in the form of numbers; that data was then used in a calculation with the result returned in a message box.

In very simple programs, data is represented as fields in the program itself. However, for more complex programs, data is stored in a structure separate from the program called a database.

In this set of lessons, you will learn how to create a database and use it to display and update data in your programs.

In This Section

• Storing and Accessing Data
  Explains how to use a database to store and access data.

• Creating Your First Database
  Describes how to create a database by using the Visual Database Tools in Visual Basic.

• Getting the Information You Need: Connecting to an Existing Database
  Describes how to connect a program to an existing database.

• Showing Information to the User: Displaying Data in Your User Interface
  Explains how to create a basic user interface for viewing the data in a local database.

• Adding or Modifying Your Records: Updating Data
  Demonstrates how to create a data-entry form to update data in a local database.

• Displaying Related Data
  Explains how to add data from one table and data from a related table to a Windows Forms application.

• Creating LINQ to SQL Classes: Using the O/R Designer
  Demonstrates how to use the O/R Designer to crate LINQ to SQL Classes and then bind the data to controls on a Windows Form.

• Using LINQ to Bind Data to Controls
  Explains how to write a LINQ query and bind the results of the query to a control on a Windows Form.

• Including XML Directly in Your Code: Using XML Literals
  Demonstrates how to use XML literals.

Related Sections

• Visual Basic Guided Tour
  The Visual Basic Guided Tour is a series of sequential lessons that will introduce you to the basics of programming in Visual Basic.

• Using LINQ in Visual Basic Express
  Provides an overview of Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) and provides links to topics that describe how to use LINQ to query data.