Introduction

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is a new revolution in computer programming. I am grateful that Microsoft developed such a great IDE for us. .NET had a lot of changes to the way we program and what we program in (especially in Visual Basic). ADO.NET had also a substantial difference from its previous versions. It's almost a completely new language! :)

I'll show how to create a DB Connection through either OLE or SQL in runtime using C# as well as VB. Drag and dropping in the IDE is really easy, but there are times when you need to do it in runtime. SQL and OLE both have their own namespaces in the .NET Framework.  They contain every single object and method that relate to that type of connection. Of course there is the namespace for all the General Data handling, which includes objects like the dataset.

OLE = System.Data.OleDB
SQL = System.Data.SqlClient
General Data = System.Data

Step #1: Declare the Connection Object

for OLE:
    VB:  Friend WithEvents OleConn as new System.Data.OleDB.OleDBConnection()
    C#:  internal System.Data.OleDB.OleDBConnection OleConn;

for SQL:
    VB:  Friend WithEvents SqlConn As New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection()
    C#:  internal System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection SqlConn;

Some may wonder why I applied the WithEvents and Friend or internal modifiers to the objects.

Reason for WithEvents:
    -We can create procedures to handle the connection's events... like the StateChanged event

Reason for internal or Friend:
    -Make it available throughout the whole project