Murach's VB.NET Database Programming With ADO.NET

Great For Learning ADO.Net!!!

This book is great for developers who need to get thier feet wet with ADO.Net and it also gives great coding examples and they are actually ERROR FREE!!! and you do not get that with alof of programming titles. The explanation of the topics are one of a kind...THIS WAS A WELL SPENT 50 DOLLARS!!!

Excellent ADO.NET Book

One thing that immediately hit me as I read the book is the format. Basically every left hand page is a narrative and every right hand page contains diagrams and bullet points pertaining to the narrative. The first implication this has is that in a way the book appears twice as large as it actually is. A lot of information from the left hand side is repeated on the right hand side. Also there is a liberal sprinkling of white space. At first I thought this was unnecessary. However once I got into the book I found that this format generally worked for me. I discovered that after reading each left hand page I could then take stock by reading the bullet points on the right hand page. This was particularly useful once the first few chapters were left behind and the more involved issues started to get explained. So a thumbs up for this format and I think we may well see other publishers take it up in future. I'd advise you to read Appendix A first and make sure you have the Web Server & MSDE installed ready on your PC for use as you make your way through the book. The book's example applications are written for the MSDE database (although they should work equally as well for SQL Server). The whole book is heavily biased towards MSDE/SQL Server. (Nearly all the example code uses the System.Data.SQLClient namespace) The applications and sample database used in the book are available for download. Pros I found the information in the book to be very accurate. The few errors were posted very quickly on their web site. I also liked having space in the margins to pencil in remarks and notes. The print was clear and there were plenty of diagrams and figures to supplement the text. Cons I couldn't initially use the example database as it was created using a collation different to my UK set-up. This will need to be corrected if the book is to be sold outside the US. I eventually managed to get around this problem by using a Microsoft support article, 325681. Conclusion The book assumes some VB.Net familiarity. I'd suggest that anyone reading this book reads a basic VB.Net book first. However, as far as ADO.Net goes no prior knowledge is required. This is not so much a reference book as a tutorial book that guides you through the various aspects of ADO.Net. I found it difficult to dive into a particular chapter without reading the previous chapters. This in itself is certainly no bad thing but it is something you need to be aware of. My overall opinion is that this book is an excellent tool to learn ADO.NET for VB.NET. I'd have no problem recommending it to anyone new to ADO.NET but with some VB.NET experience. This book is definitely aimed at the ADO.NET novice and you will end up with a basic grounding and good coverage of ADO.NET subjects.

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