Working with data providers

Data providers

The following table lists the data providers that are included in the .NET Framework.

.NET Framework data provider	Description
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server	Provides data access for Microsoft SQL Server. Uses the System.Data.SqlClient namespace.
.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB	For data sources exposed by using OLE DB. Uses the System.Data.OleDb namespace.
.NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC	For data sources exposed by using ODBC. Uses the System.Data.Odbc namespace.
.NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle	For Oracle data sources. The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle supports Oracle client software version 8.1.7 and later, and uses the System.Data.OracleClient namespace.
EntityClient Provider	Provides data access for Entity Data Model (EDM) applications. Uses the System.Data.EntityClient namespace.
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server Compact 4.0.	Provides data access for Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0. Uses the System.Data.SqlServerCe namespace.

Core Objects of Data Providers

The following table outlines the four core objects that make up a .NET Framework data provider.

Object	Description
Connection	Establishes a connection to a specific data source. The base class for all Connectionobjects is the DbConnection class.
Command	Executes a command against a data source. Exposes Parameters and can execute in the scope of a Transaction from a Connection. The base class for all Command objects is the DbCommand class.
DataReader	Reads a forward-only, read-only stream of data from a data source. The base class for all DataReader objects is the DbDataReader class.
DataAdapter	Populates a DataSet and resolves updates with the data source. The base class for all DataAdapter objects is the DbDataAdapter class.