I am an ancient programmer switching from C to .NET. I have read a lotta books in my time and this is the best presentation and layout of a book I have ever seen. Its easy to read. Content is great. I wish I had found it first in my conversion to .NET. I am so impressed that I am checking out the other Murach titles for something to buy.

I needed to learn ADO.NET for my job and this book was the best on the topic I read the entire book in about 3 weeks. Everything is explained wonderfully. I love how the examples are laid out on the right with explanations on the left. I also really found the program files extremely helpful. I opened each chapters program and followed right along with the book. All the examples are already created so that you can see how they work and even modify them.

I liked this book so much that I also bought the ASP.NET, SQL, and Visual Basic 2005...all topics I need to brush up on. As far as I can tell these other books follow the same great format.

From someone who thousands of dollars worth of technical and programming books...these are great even for beginners. However if you are not familiar with vb2005 get murach's visual basic 2005 to read first.

As with the other Murach Press books I have reviewed, this book is extremely readable. It shows step-by-step how to develop database applications with VB. NET 2005 and ADO.NET. This book is best suited to someone new to database development with Visual Studio 2005 but that has a passing familiarity with VB syntax. If you are unfamiliar with flow control statements and VB syntax, you might want to look at Murach's "Visual Basic 2005" book first. I highly recommend this book for entry to mid level developers.

ADO.NET is a huge and sometimes daunting topic to attempt to cover, but in traditional Murach fashion, this book has the capacity to make its reader an expert if read cover to cover. All of the important topics are coverered, including use of the base objects, data binding, typed vs. untyped data sets, and most importantly (in my opinion): use of object data sources.

The best part of Murach books (including this one), aside from the paired page layout, is that they make no assumption about the reader's skill level, and cover enough background on each topic to ensure that you will come away with a thorough understanding of not just what and how, but also why.

Both beginner and expert programmers alike will find this book extremely useful, and it's a great addition to the Murach family of programming reference and tutorial books.

I am a C# developer but when I started browsing this book I couldn't help it but to continue reading it. It is not only about the VB language itself, but instead, how to use it so solve software problems. It teaches how to better write software, best practices and approaches.
This book doesn't cover all the theory in the world about a topic. Also, not all topics. But it tells you how to use them and what to watch for.
I am glad to have read it.

The book is very good. I recommend it for new and experienced developers that will program with VB 2005.

The Murach publishing house are unusual in that they only use a small group of in-house authors and all their books use the same structure and layout style. This style is their individual "facing pages" approach.

How it works is that each pair of pages throughout the book deal with the same topic or sub-topic. On the left hand page you get an explanation of the subject in hand. Many times this explanation will be all you need if it's an uncomplicated topic or you`re already partly familiar with it or it's just one of those things you can grasp straight away.

But if you need further explanation or code samples or screenshots to clarify things then you will find these on each right hand page. It's a simple concept, but a very effective one. If, like me, you like to skim (or go back sometimes and very quickly review) a topic, then this facing page layout is absolutely perfect.

The book is split into five parts, dealing with :
1. Introduction to Relational Databases
2. Three-layer architecture (splitting the application into separate sections that deal with presentation, business logic and database tasks.)
3. Databases in Web applications
4. Further detailed coverage of more advanced ADO.NET topics.
5. XML, Server Explorer and Crystal reports

Author Ann Boehm works through each of these complex and wide-ranging topics in a clear and logical manner.

One of the features of Murach's books that I always applaud is that you can rely on them to take nothing for granted. For example, they don't assume that the reader knows how to attach the downloadable SQL Server database samples. In a handy Appendix at the end of the book you will find help on key tasks such as:
How to install SQL Server 2005 Express
How to attach, detach and restore the database for the book and
How to grant ASP.NET access to the database.

While they are all easy to do - once you know how - these are the kind of things that will drive a beginner near to tears of frustration if they hit this hurdle alone. It is this kind of attention to the reader's needs that sets Murach books apart from some others.

As is standard nowadays, you can download the full set of samples used in the book. Most of the samples are grouped into complete applications of varying size and this makes them much more much real world friendly than a bunch of small unrelated code snippets you may see elsewhere.

This is another high quality book from the Murach stable. Overall, if you want a good introduction to programming ADO.NET 2.0 in Visual Basic 2005 then this book is well worth the money.

Learning, teaching, or referring to it under pressure, this is a best-of-class book you want on your shelf. Combined with Murach's SQL Server 2005 title there's little you won't know how to do with db programming in Visual Studio. And, you'll have code samples for all of it--not just a high-level description. These 2 books, combined and used in unison, get my vote as something every visual studio programmer should have and hold. Some of my other faves are discussed on the ITSBITS website if you're ever interested.

This is a clear and concise book using the "paired pages" format. How-to on the left page and examples on the right. This style contributes to the effectivness of the learning process. This book contains a lot of information - 764 pages. The section on Three-layer Windows Forms applications contains a complete payable entry application complete with code.

As a professional developer, I need information that is accurate and easy to understand. This book qualifies on both counts.