Relational Database

• A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored

• In relational database, data is stored in one or more tables.

• Each table consisting of rows (records)and columns(fields).

• Each row contains information about a single item.

• If a table contains one or more columns that uniquely identifies each row in the table, it is
defined as primary key of the table.

• Primary key consists of two or more columns. It is called a composite primary key.

• The only difference between unique key and primary key is that unique key contain null value
and a primary key can’t.

• A table can also be defined with one or more indexes.

• An index provides and efficient way to access data from a table based on the values in
specific columns.

• An index is automatically created for a table’s primary and non-primary keys.

• Foreign key is one or more columns in a table that refer to a primary key in another table

• The data type that is assigned to a column determines the type of information that can be
stored in the column.

• Depending on the data type, the column definition can also include its length, precision and
scale.

• Each column definition also indicates whether or not the column can contain null values.

• A null value indicates that the value of the column is not known.

• A column can be defined with a default value. Then, that value is used for the column if
another value isn’t provided when a row is added to the table.

• A column can also be defined as an identity column.

• An identity column is a numeric column whose value is generated automatically when a row
is added to the table.

• To restrict the values that a column can hold, use check constraints. It can be defined at the
column level or the table level.
 SQL to work with data in database
• SQL statements which are used to manipulate the data in a database is Select, Insert, Update
and Delete.

• A result set is a logical table that is created temporarily within the database.

• When an application requests data from a database, it receives a result set.

• A result set can include columns that are calculated from other columns in the table.

• To select all of the columns in a table use asterisk (*) in place of the column names.

• A join combine data from two or more tables in to a single result set.

• The most common type of join is an inner join. Inner join returns rows from both table only if
their related columns match.

• Insert, Update and Delete statements are used to add new rows to a table, to update the
data in existing rows and to delete existing rows.

•
 Introduction to ADO.NET4
• ADO.NET 4(Active X Data Objects) is the primary data access API for the .net framework.

• It provides the classes which are used in developing database applications.

• ADO.NET uses two types of objects to access the data in a database.

1.Datasets

2..NET data provider includes data adapters, commands and connections

• Data used by an application is stored in a dataset that contain one or more data tables.

• .NET data provider objects retrieve data from and update data in the database.

• To load data in to a data table data adapter is using.

• The main function of the data adapter is to manage the flow of data between a data set and
a database.
Concurrency and the disconnected data architecture
 Introduction to ADO.NET4 Classes
1. SqlConnection class

• A SqlConnection object is required to establish a connection to a SQL Server database.

• Most important property is ConnectionString. A connection string is a string that provides

• A SqlCommand object is used to execute a SQL command against a SQL Server database

3.SqlParameter class

• A SqlParameter object is used to pass variable information to a SQL command. Used to limit
the no of rows returned by a select statement.
4 SqlDataReader class

• The SqlDataReader object is used to read a row of record at a time which is got using
SqlCommand.

• It is read only, which means we can only read the record; it can’t be edited.

• And also it is forward only, which means we can’t go back to a previous row (record)

5 SqlDataAdapter class

• The SqlDataAdapter works as a bridge between a DataSet and a data source (SQL Server
Database) to retrieve data.

• The SqlDataAdapter is a class that represents a set of SQL commands and a database
connection.

• It can be used to fill the DataSet and update the data source.