Easysoft logo

Products Services Solutions Support OEM Company Blog

Log In / Register
search
Download Oracle®, Interbase, Salesforce, Derby, MongoDB, ISAM and RMS ODBC drivers
for .NET. Free trial.
C# ADO.NET ODBC Tutorial
Use the ODBC .NET Data Provider to access data from your C sharp ADO.NET
applications.

Contents
What is .NET?
.NET and Data Access
What Does This Document Show?
A Simple Example
Getting Error Information
Updating Data
Multiple Results
What is .NET?
Microsoft describe .NET in the following way:

".NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people,

systems, and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform,
.NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use
connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions
enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile
manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any
device."

For more details about the entire framework, consult the FAQ Microsoft provide at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973850.aspx

.NET and Data Access

ADO.NET is the data access model for .NET-based applications. This interface will
be familiar to users of the older ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) data access interface.
However, there are some important differences between the two.

A useful Microsoft document that details ADO.NET from an ADO programmer’s

perspective can be found at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973217.aspx

One of the key changes that ADO.NET introduces is the replacement of the ADO
Recordset object with a combination of the DataTable, DataSet, DataAdapter, and
DataReader objects. A DataTable represents a collection of rows from a single
table, and in this respect is similar to the Recordset. A DataSet represents a
collection of DataTable objects, together with the relationships and constraints
that bind the various tables together.

One of the key characteristics of the DataSet is that it has no knowledge of the
underlying data source that might have been used to populate it. The actual
interface to the underlying data source is provided by using one of a number of
.NET Data Providers. A .NET Data Provider comprise four key objects (Connection,
Command, DataReader and DataAdapter).

.NET Data Providers fall into two categories: bridge providers and native
providers. Bridge providers, such as those supplied for OLE DB and ODBC, allow you
to use data libraries designed for earlier data access technologies. Native
providers are normally provided by the actual database supplier and provide
interfaces to specific databases. For example, SQL Server has a native provider
available from Microsoft.

What Does This Document Show?

This document concentrates on the use of the ODBC .NET Data Provider to provide
access to data though the use of ODBC drivers, which are available for most
database systems. The remainder of this document will use Easysoft ODBC-ISAM Driver
as the sample ODBC driver, this provides connection via Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge
to data stored in ISAM files. The examples are equally appropriate when using the
ODBC-ODBC Bridge, the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver, the Easysoft ODBC-InterBase
Driver, the Easysoft ODBC-RMS Driver or any other Windows ODBC driver.

What Do You Need to Recreate These Examples?

The Easysoft software needed to recreate the following examples can be downloaded
from the Easysoft web site. All the Microsoft .NET tools are available from
Microsoft.

The Sample ODBC Data Source

In this document we will use the sample data provided by installing the Easysoft
ODBC-ISAM Driver on the target machine, and the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client on
the local Windows machine.

Download Oracle®, Interbase, Salesforce, Derby, ISAM and RMS ODBC drivers for .NET.
Free trial.
A Simple Example
The following steps will create a application that show the basic operations used
to interface ODBC and .NET.

Create a new Visual Studio Project. For this example, we will use a C# Console
Application.
Import the System.data.Odbc namespace into the application, to allow us to use the
ODBC .NET Data Provider:
using System.Data.Odbc;
Now create an OdbcConnection object and connect it to our sample data source.
OdbcConnection DbConnection = new OdbcConnection("DSN=SAMPLE_ISAM");
This example uses a DSN connection, but a DSN free connection can be used by using
the DRIVER={} format. Consult your ODBC driver documentation for more details.

Now open that OdbcConnection object:

DbConnection.Open();
Now using the OdbcConnection, we will create an OdbcCommand:
OdbcCommand DbCommand = DbConnection.CreateCommand();
Using that command, we can issue a Query and create an OdbcDataReader:
DbCommand.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM NATION";
OdbcDataReader DbReader = DbCommand.ExecuteReader();
Now we have an OdbcDataReader, we can find the number and names of the columns in
the result set, and display this on the console.
int fCount = DbReader.FieldCount;
Console.Write(":");
for ( int i = 0; i < fCount; i ++ )
{
String fName = DbReader.GetName(i);
Console.Write( fName + ":");
}
Console.WriteLine();
Now we can read each row from the result set, and read each column in that row and
display its value.
while( DbReader.Read())
{
Console.Write( ":" );
for (int i = 0; i < fCount; i++)
{
String col = DbReader.GetString(i);

Console.Write(col + ":");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
Once OdbcDataReader.Read() returns false, we have read every row in the result set,
so now we should cleanup the objects we have used
DbReader.Close();
DbCommand.Dispose();
DbConnection.Close();
We now have a complete C# ADO.NET application that connects to our ODBC data
source, issues a query then displays the results from that query.

The complete program source for this section can be found in CSharpODBCExample1.cs

Getting Error Information

The sample program did not contain provision for dealing with errors. Unfortunately
in the real world, we need to handle unexpected situations. So we will now add some
extra code to our sample that allows us to handle errors.

First, we will allow the connection string to be passed in on the command line of
the application.

if (args.Length != 1 )
{
Console.WriteLine("usage: sample connection-string");
return;
}
String connStr = args[0];

OdbcConnection DbConnection = new OdbcConnection( connStr );

Now we can set the command line properties to the same as before.

"DSN=SAMPLE_ISAM"
The program can be run as before. However, if the user enters an invalid connection
string, the program will fail when the OdbcConnection.Open() method is called. The
program will throw an Exception at this point, and we can change our code to catch
this exception and display information from the ODBC system to the user.

The exception thrown will be an OdbcException, and we can use this to extract the
error string that the ODBC Driver Manager has returned.

try
{
DbConnection.Open();
}
catch (OdbcException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("connection to the DSN '" + connStr + "' failed.");
Console.WriteLine("The OdbcConnection returned the following message");
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
return;
}
We will also allow the user to enter the query to executed and then set this string
as the query to be executed:

Console.Write("SQL> ");
String query = Console.ReadLine();
OdbcCommand DbCommand = DbConnection.CreateCommand();
DbCommand.CommandText = query;
But now the SQL may not be valid, so the OdbcCommand.ExecuteReader() may also throw
an exception, which we can catch and display.

try
{
OdbcDataReader DbReader = DbCommand.ExecuteReader();
// rest of the code to process the result set
}
catch (OdbcException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Executing the query '" + query + "' failed.");
Console.WriteLine("The OdbcCommand returned the following message");
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
return;
}
The complete program source for this section can be found in CSharpODBCExample2.cs

Download Oracle®, Interbase, Salesforce, Derby, ISAM and RMS ODBC drivers for .NET.
Free trial.
Updating Data
Now that we can enter a query at the command line, our application must handle
queries that do more than just create result sets. At the moment, if we try to
create a new table using the application, the OdbcDataReader will be created with
no columns, so we can use this do decide how to process the query.

int fCount = DbReader.FieldCount;

if (fCount > 0)
{
// process result set
}
else
{
// process non result set
}
In the case of a non result set generating statement, we can use the
OdbcDataReader.RecordsAffected property to see how many rows have been altered by
an update/delete/insert statement.

else
{
int row_count = DbReader.RecordsAffected;
Console.WriteLine( "Query affected " + row_count + " row(s)");
}
Our sample can now query and update the database.

The complete program source for this section can be found in CSharpODBCExample3.cs.

Multiple Results
Most databases can now process commands like this:

select * from table1; select * from table2

This will create more than one result set. So we will now add code to our example
that allows each result set to be processed in turn. The OdbcDataReader object has
a method NextResult() that will move the OdbcDataReader to the next result from the
query. So all we need to do is wrap the query processing in a loop processing each
result in turn until NextResult() returns false:

OdbcDataReader DbReader = DbCommand.ExecuteReader();

do
{
// process result
}
while (DbReader.NextResult());
Our final program can be found in CSharpODBCExample4.cs.

Download Oracle®, Interbase, Salesforce, Derby, ISAM and RMS ODBC drivers for .NET.
Free trial.
Appendix A: Resources
Easysoft ODBC drivers:
Oracle® ODBC driver
Salesforce.com ODBC driver
MongoDB ODBC driver
InterBase ODBC driver
Firebird ODBC driver
Derby ODBC driver
C/D-ISAM ODBC driver
RMS ODBC driver
LINC Developer ODBC driver
System Z ODBC driver
ODBC-JDBC Gateway — providing ODBC access to JDBC data sources.
ODBC-ODBC Bridge — providing ODBC access to any remote ODBC data source. For
example, access remote ISAM files from C# on Windows.
64-bit ODBC — everything you need to know about ODBC on 64-bit Linux, UNIX and
Windows platforms.
Article Feedback
* Did this content help you?
Yes
No
Maybe
* Please select one option based on your first choice:
I'm very satisfied
I think it will help, but I haven't tried it yet
It is helpful, but I need more information
It is helpful, but hard to understand
Seemed relevant in search results, but didn't help me
The information is incorrect
The page contains one or more broken links
Suggest new content or let us know how we can improve this content:
(* Required Fields)

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

About Easysoft
Contact Us
About Us
Clients
Upgrade Offer
Blog
Careers
Products
ODBC Drivers
JDBC Drivers
Bridges and Gateways
In Development
Services
Consultancy
Training
Custom Development
Licensing
Product Licenses
Prices
Support
Support Home
Solution Wizard
Getting Started Guides
User Guides
Knowledge Base
Search
Easysoft.com
Documentation
Knowledge Base
Popular Resources
Developer Area
Client Applications
Legal
Privacy Statement
Your Account
Log In
Register
© 1993 - 2020 Easysoft Limited. All rights reserved. Oracle® is a registered
trademark of Oracle® Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other trademarks and
registered trademarks appearing on easysoft.com are the property of their
respective owners.Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Google+ YouTube