Chapter 4. The ADO .NET Class Library

ActiveX Data Objects .NET is in some ways a misnomer. It implies that ADO .NET is implemented as an ActiveX object library, the same way as ADO was. In a sense this is true, because like ADO, ADO .NET wraps the OLEDB COM classes. However, unlike ADO, ADO .NET is not itself an ActiveX object library. It is implemented as a collection of .NET classes. ADO .NET also has a high-performance native mode for SQL Server that does not use OLEDB at all! The basis for ADO .NET is XML. Perhaps it should have been called XDO for XML Data Objects. As we dissect the class library, you will see why.

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