.NET and COM Interoperability Handbook, The

Returning Data Using a Dataset

Another way to return tabular data from a Web service is to return it as an ADO.NET dataset. Just like ADO Recordsets, you can fabricate a dataset from in-memory data that does not come from a database. To understand how to do this, let's first look at the object model for ADO.NET datasets, which is shown in Figure 10-15.

Figure 10-15. The object model for ADO.NET datasets.

As you can see, a dataset is a collection of data tables. A data table is actually the equivalent of an ADO Recordset; it contains columns and rows. To create a fabricated Dataset, you first need to add a data table to the dataset using the Add ...