Accessing and Manipulating

Cloud Data
Session 8
Data Access Components
Requests data
Database
Sends data
User Server Running

Requests data
Database
Error Message
Client Software Server Down

DAC
(ODBC, OLE DB, Database
ADO, ADO.net)
Data Access Components [Cont…]
• The client can access the database using different data access
components. Some of the data access components are:
• ODBC
• OLE DB
• DAO
• RDO
• ADO
• ADO.NET
 Various Data Access Technologies

 The .NET Framework provides several

technologies that you can use in enterprise
Web application to work with data stored in a
database or other data sources.

 The key data access technologies of the .NET

Framework include:

Entity
ADO.NET
Framework
 ADO.NET 1-2

 ADO.NET:
– Consists of a set of classes provided by the .NET Framework that you can
use to access the data stored in a database.

– Helps you to connect with a database, execute commands, and populate a

data set that provides forward-only and read-only access to data.
ADO.NET 2-2

Connection
Command
DataReader
DataAdapter
 Connection Object 1-3

 It enables an application to connect with a database.

 The .NET Framework provides the abstract DbConnection class to
represent a connection to a database.

For specific databases, you can use concrete subclasses of the
DbConnection class.

 You need to use:

– SqlConnection class to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server database

– OracleConnection class to connect to an Oracle database
– ConnectionString property of the object when you create an object of a
connection class
 Connection Object 2-3
 Following code snippet shows an example of creating a SqlConnection object
and setting the ConnectionString property:

SqlConnection testConnection = new SqlConnection();

testConnection.ConnectionString = "Data Source = 172.23.3.59;

Initial Catalog=AppDb; Integrated Security=SSPI; Persist Security
Info=False";

 In this code:
– A SqlConnection object is created and its ConnectionString property is set.
– The connection string contains the DataSource property that specifies the address of
the data source.
– The InitialCatalog property specifies the name of the database to access.
– The SSPI value of the IntegratedSecurity property specifies that the Windows
user account should be used to connect to the database.
– The False value of the PersistSecurityInfo property specifies that the
authentication information used to connect to the database should be discarded once
the connection is established.
 Connection Object 3-3

 Once you have created the connection string, you need to

open the connection by calling the Open() method of the
SqlConnection object.

 Following code snippet opens a connection to the AppDb

database, as specified in the connection string:
testConnection.Open();
 Command Object

 Enables an application to execute commands against the database and

retrieve results.
 The SqlCommand class represents a command object for Microsoft SQL
Server database.
 This object specifies the SQL statement that needs to be executed and the
connection that needs to be used to execute the statement.
 Following code snippet creates a SqlCommand object:

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("Select * from

employees", testConnection);

– This code creates a SqlCommand object initialized with a SQL SELECT statement and
the opened SqlConnection object.
Command Object - Methods
Methods Description
This method is used to execute an sql statement that is specified as the command text
ExecuteNonQuery for the command object. It also returns the number of rows that have been affected or
retrieved by the SQL statement.
This method is used to execute a stored procedure that is specified as the command text
ExecuteReader for the command object. It also creates a DataReader object with the retrieved data.
ExecuteScalar This method is typically used to execute a SQL query that returns a single value, such as
an aggregate function (e.g., COUNT, SUM, AVG) or a scalar value from a table.
 Data Reader Object 1-2

 It enables storing the data retrieved by executing the command

object.
 The SqlDataReader class represents a data reader for
Microsoft SQL Server database.
 You can create a data reader object by calling the
ExecuteReader() method of the SqlCommand object.
 Data Reader Object 2-2

 Following code snippet creates a data reader object:

SqlDataReader dataReader = cmd. ExecuteReader();

 Once you have created the data reader object, you can
retrieve a single row of data at a time by calling the
Read()method of the SqlDataReader object.
 Following code shows reading the first row stored in the data
reader object:

dataReader.Read();
Fetching Single Value

count(empno)

Client
Returns a number Application

Example:

SqlCommand ordersCMD = new SqlCommand("SELECT

Count(*) FROM Orders", nwindConn);
Int32 count = (Int32)ordersCMD.ExecuteScalar();
 Data Set Object 1-3
 Represents a memory-based relational representation of data. A dataset is
a disconnected, cached set of records that are retrieved from a database.
 The dataset acts like a virtual database containing tables, rows, and
columns.

Datasets are extensively used to retrieve data from data sources in Web
applications because they do not require the connection to be opened all
the time.

 Instead, they cache data from the database and after that, the connection
can be closed.
 The Dataset object requires the data adapter to retrieve data from the
data source.
DataSet - Example
Client requests data from Server

Client Server

DataSet
 Data Set Object 2-3

 Following code snippet creates a dataset filled with data:

SqlConnectiontestConnection = new SqlConnection();
testConnection.ConnectionString = "Data Source=172.23.3.59;Initial
Catalog=AppDb;Integrated Security=SSPI; Persist Security Info =
False";
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
testConnection.Open();
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter("Select * from employees",
testConnection);
da.Fill(ds, "employees");

 In this code:
– The data from the data source is retrieved by the data adapter and
filled into the dataset.
 Data Set Object 3-3

 Once a DataSet is created with data, the DataSource property of a

control can be used to bind the DataSet with the control.

 This enables displaying data in the DataSet in the control.

 For example, you can use a GridView as a User Interface (UI) control.

 Following code snippet displays the data in the dataset in a GridView

control named gvwEmp:

gvwEmp.DataSource = ds;
gvwEmp.DataBind();
DataView
• Presentation layer for the data stored in DataTable
• Provides view of DataTable for sorting, filtering and searching
• Can be used to view a subset of the data stored in DataTable
• There can be two controls on the same DataTable, which
provide different view of the data
DataView [Example]
SqlConnection sqlcon;
DataView dv;
sqlcon= new SqlConnection("server=SQLDB; uid=sa; pwd=; database=pubs");
SqlDataAdapter sqlcom = new SqlDataAdapter("select * from employee", sqlcon);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
sqlcom.Fill(ds, "employee");
dv = new DataView (ds.Tables ["employee"]);
dv.RowFilter = "job_id >10";
dv.Sort = "lname DESC";
DataGrid1.DataSource=dv;
SqlTransaction Class
• The SqlTransaction class in C# is used to manage database transactions in
SQL Server using the ADO.NET data provider.
• A transaction is a unit of work that must be completed in its entirety or
not at all, ensuring data integrity and consistency.
Asynchronous Operations with ADO.NET
• Database operations can take a long time to complete.
• With ADO.NET, you can use asynchronous operations to execute long-running queries
without creating and blocking a managed thread.
• ADO.NET supports asynchronous operations:
• Background execution for long-running operations
• Freeing up managed threads until the database responds
• You can use asynchronous command operations:
• ExecuteNonQueryAsync
• ExecuteReaderAsync
• ExecuteScalarAsync
• In ASP.net Core, the asynchronous methods return a Task<T> object, where the generic type
parameter T is the type returned by the corresponding synchronous method. For example, the
ExecuteReaderAsync method returns a Task<DbDataReader> object, whereas the
corresponding synchronous method, ExecuteReader, returns a DbDataReader object.
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Cont…
• In ASP.NET Core, the await keyword is used to asynchronously wait for the
completion of an asynchronous operation, typically represented by a Task or
Task<T> object.
• The await keyword introduced in C# 5 to schedule a continuation when the
operation completes. You can also use the Task.ContinueWith method to provide
a delegate as the continuation of the task
• Task.ContinueWith method is used to chain multiple asynchronous operations
together, allowing you to specify a continuation task that will be executed after
the original task has completed.
• Other asynchronous methods:
• DbConnection.OpenAsync
• DbDataReader.ReadAsync

Cloud Computing
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Spring 2024
Cont…
using (var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
await connection.OpenAsync();
using (var command = new SqlCommand(commandString, connection))
{
using (SqlDataReader reader = await command.ExecuteReaderAsync())
{
while (await reader.ReadAsync())
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", reader.GetInt32(0), reader.GetString(1));
}
}
}
}
Cloud Computing
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Spring 2024