Introduction

You might say the data control is a VB orphan; some developers refuse to even use it. Why? They find it limiting. On the other hand, I believe in using the least effort possible. If a simple control will do the trick, I’m all for it. In this series of articles we’re going to review database programming from the ground up. The data control is a good place to start. Once you know its assets and limitations, you can decide for yourself whether the data control is for you.

Ask a group of VB developers how they feel about the data control, and you’ll get a variety of responses. Some use the control quite a bit while others never use it at all. Why the discrepancy between users? Those who don’t use it tell us that the control isn’t all that flexible. It seems the control has a hard time growing with an application. Frankly, the majority of my applications never come back to haunt me like this. When they do, it’s for added functionality. Rarely do I actually have to rewrite existing features. I’m told I’m part of a small minority. For what it’s worth, I like the data control--especially now that version 6.0 supports ADO.