Starting out with Visual C#

Fourth Edition

Chapter 11
Databases

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Topics
11.1 Introduction to Database Management System
11.2 Tables, Rows, and Columns
11.3 Creating a Database in Visual Studio
11.4 The DataGridView Control
11.5 Connecting to an Existing Database and Using
Details View Controls
11.6 More About Data-Bound Controls
11.7 Selecting Data with the S QL Select Statement

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11.1 Introduction to Database Management
System
• A database management system (D BMS) is software that
manages large collections of data
– It is designed to store, retrieve, and manipulate data
– A C# application can interact with a D BMS through a 3-
layer manipulation
▪ Application: interacts with the user and sends
instructions to DBMS
▪ DBMS: works directly with the data and sends the
result back to the application
▪ Data: the data stored in DBMS

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11.2 Tables, Rows, and Columns
• Data stored in a database are organized into tables, rows,
and columns
• Each table holds a collection of related data
– A table is a two-dimensional container made of rows and
columns
– A row is a complete set of information about a single
item
– A column holds an individual piece of information about
Name Phone
the item Katie Allen 555-1234
• Each row contains Jill Ammons 555-5678

data about one Kevin Brown 555-9012

person Elisa Garcia 555-3456

Jeff Jenkins 555-7890

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Column Data Types
• When you create a database table, you must specify a data
type for the column
– Acceptable data types are defined by D BMS,C#not
– The textbook uses Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server Data Corresponding C#
c sharp or . N E T

Type Description Framework Data Type

bit True/false values bool
datetime A date and a time dateTime
A decimal value with t total digits and d digits
decimal(t, d) appearing after the decimal point. decimal
float Real numbers double
int An integer number int
money Values that represent currency decimal
A fixed-length Unicode string with a maximum length
nchar(n) of n characters. string
A variable-length Unicode string with a maximum
nvarchar(n) length of n characters. string

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Primary Keys
• Most database tables have a primary key
– A primary key is a column that can be used to identify a
specific row
– The column that is designated as the primary key must hold a
unique value for each row. For example,
▪ Employee ID, social security number, invoice number, sales
order number
– Sometimes the data that you want to store in a table does not
contain any unique items that can be used as a primary key
▪ You need to create an identity column specifically to serve
as the primary key. This column is known as an identify
column.
▪ Identify columns typically contain integers
▪ Each time a new row is added to the table, the D BMS
automatically assigns a unique value to the identify column
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11.3 Creating a Database in Visual Studio
• A .NET application uses several
components, arranged in layers, to
connect to a database
– Data Source – a source of data with
which the application can work
– Table Adapter – connects to a data
source and retrieves data from a
table in a data source
– Dataset – gets a copy of a table from
the table adapter and keeps the copy
of the table in memory
– Binding Source – a component that
can connect user interface controls
directly to a dataset
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Creating a Server-Based Database
• Visual Studio provides
wizards that make it easy to
create and configure the
database
– The Add New Item
window provides a
Service-based Database
option for creating an
empty SQL Server
database
– The default name of the
SQL Server database is
[Link]
– This book uses SQ©L2017, 2014, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright
The Database File’s Location
• When you use Visual Studio to create a S QL server
database, the database file will be created in the
project's folder
– The “project's folder” is where the [Link],
[Link], and [Link] files are
stored
– The file extension is .mdf. For example,
[Link].
– The server will also create a file that ends with
the .LDF extension. For example, Phonelist_log.L
DF.
▪ This is a transaction log file used to keep a log
of all theCopyright
operations
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2012 Pearson perform on Reserved
Inc. All Rights the
11.4 The DataGridView Control
• A data-bound control is a user interface control that is
connected to a data source
• It automatically displays data from the data source and
can be used to change the data
• A DataGridView control is the simplest data-bound
control and can display a database table in a scrollable
grid

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Auto-Generated Code
• When you place a data-bound control, such as the DataGridView, on a form,
the following code will be generated automatically:

– These codes execute when the user clicks the Save button on the
navigator bar
– These codes apply any changes that have been made to the dataset
and save them to the database
• A Load event handler is also added to the form to call the table adapter’s
Fill method

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11.5 Connecting to an Existing Database
and Using Details View Controls
• A Details view is a set of individual controls that are
bound to the columns in a single row
• Rather than showing multiple rows at once, a Details
view lets the user see one row at a time
• The Details view control is an alternative to the
DataGridView control for interacting with a database

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11.6 More About Data-Bound Controls
• The DataGridView control and the Details view may be customized
• In the Designer, if you select a DataGridView control, you will see a
small arrow in the upper-right corner which is called a smart tag
• If you click the smart tag, you will get a task panel with the
following options:
– Enable Adding – adds rows in the DataGridView
– Enable Editing – changes the contents of rows
– Enable Deleting – deletes rows
– Enable Column Reordering – allows users to click and drag
columns to rearrange them

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Customizing the Details View
• By default, Details view controls are automatically bound in the following
ways:
– Columns containing character data are bound to TextBox controls
– Numeric columns are bound to TextBox controls
– Bit columns are bound to CheckBox controls
– Datetime columns are bound to DateTimePicker controls

• You can customize the type of control to which column will be bound in the
Data Source window

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Binding Columns to ListBox Controls
• You can bind a column to a ListBox control and display all the
values in that column to be displayed in the list box
• You need to use two of ListBox control's properties:
– DataSource: identifies the table from which the ListBox
will get its data
– DisplayMember: identifies the column

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11.7 Selecting Data with the SQL Select
Statement
• SQL, short for structured query language, is a standard language for
working with database management systems
• SQL statements consist of several keywords
– You use the keywords to construct statements known as queries
– Queries are sent to the DBMS as instructions to process data
– The SELECT and FROM statements, for example, are used for retrieving
the rows in a table. To retrieve the Description column for every row in
the Product table, use:

– SQL is not case-sensitive

• In this chapter, SQL statements are part of the C# applications you will create

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The Select Statement
• The SELECT statement allows you to select specific rows.
Its generic form is:

• To retrieve the Description and Price columns for every

row in the Product table, use:

• If you wish to retrieve every column in a table, use the *

character

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Specifying a Search Criteria with the
Where Clause (1 of 2)
• When you need to narrow the list down to few selected
rows in the table, use the WHERE clause
– The general format is:

• in which Criteria is a conditional expression

• SQL supports several relational operators for writing

conditional expressions

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Specifying a Search Criteria with the
Where Clause (2 of 2)

Operator Meaning
> Greater than
< Less than
greater than or equal
>= Greater than or equal to
less than or equal
<= Less than or equal to
= Equal to
not equal Not equal to
<>

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Sample SQL Statements (Where Clause)
• To retrieve the product numbers and prices of all the
items that are priced at $28.95:

• To retrieve all the columns from only the rows where the
description is “Denim Jeans”:

• If you need to include a single quote as part of a string,

simply write two single quotes. To search for Katy’s Wool
Cap, use:

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SQL String Functions
• SQL keywords and clauses are not case-sensitive. But, string
comparison are.
– ‘Denim Jeans’, ‘denim jeans’, and ‘Denim jeans’ are
considered three different string literals
– The following three SQL statements will generate three
different results:

• You can use the Lower() or Upper() string function before

performing the comparison

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Using the LIKE Operator
• The LIKE operator allows you to do a search based on a pattern rather than
specifying exactly what is desired
– “Oxford Cloth Shirt” and “Poplin Shirt” both contains the string “Shirt”
– Use the string “Shirt” as the pattern with the wildcard character %
– % represents any sequence of zero or more characters

• The underscore (_) wildcard character represents a single character. To

search for all rows in which Product_Number begins with “2”, followed by
any one character, followed by “-0”, followed by any one character, use

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Using Logical Operators
• You can use the AND, OR, and NOT logical operators to specify
multiple search criteria in a WHERE clause
– The AND operator requires both search criteria be true for a row
to be qualified as a match

– The OR operator requires that either of the search criteria be true

for a row to be qualified as a match

– The NOT operator disqualify a search criteria

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Sorting the Results of a Select Query
• To sort the results of a SELECT query, use the ORDER BY
clause

– The results will be sorted in ascending order

– To sort in descending order, use the Desc operator

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Table Adapter Queries (1 of 2)
• A table adapter query is an SQL statement that is stored in a table adapter
and can be executed simply by calling a method
• When you place a data-bound control, such as DataGridView, on a form, a
Load event handler that calls the table adapter’s Fill method is
automatically created for the form

• The above code calls the productTableAdapter’s Fill method, passing

the dataset’s Product table as an argument
• The Fill method also fills the dataset table with rows that are returned from
a SQL statement (described in the next slide)

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Table Adapter Queries (2 of 2)
(xsd) : XML
Schema definition
• In the Solution Explorer, you will see an entry named [Link]
which is the schema definition file that describes the contents of the
productDataSet (1)
• Double-click the [Link] entry to open it in an editor window (2)

• Right-click the area that reads Fill, GetData() and select Configure from
the pop-up menu to display the Table Adapter Configuration Wizard (3)
• You can then add your own SQL queries

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SQL Math Functions
• SQL provides several functions for performing calculations
– Avg(Column): calculates the average value in a particular column

– Sum(Column): calculates the sum of a column’s values

– Min(Column): finds the minimum value of a column.

– Max(Column): finds the maximum value of a column

– Count(Column): returns the number of values of the specified

column

▪ To determine the number of rows in a table, use:

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Query Parameters
• SQL queries can accept arguments
– Arguments are passed into parameter variables
– In SQL, a parameter variable begins with the @ symbol

– The above statement retrieves all the rows in which the Price column is
less than the value of the priceValue parameter
– When you call the table adapter method for an S QL query, you have to
pass arguments for any parameters that are used in the query

– The above code calls the table adapter’s SearchDesc method

– The 2nd argument is the searchTextBox control’s Text property
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Copyright

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