ADO.NET Using ADOX in VB.NET
In this article I will explain using ADOX with ADO.NET.
Microsoft ActiveX Data
Objects Extensions for Data Definition Language and Security (ADOX) is an extension to ADO and provides an object model to manipulate data definition and security.
You can use ADOX in managed code in a pretty similar way to how you used an ADO recordset in the previous section. Just add a reference to ADOX type library using VS .NET's Add Reference option and use the namespace and its members as you would in unmanaged code.
To test this, create a newWindowsapplication. After that add a reference to the Microsoft ADO Ext. 2-7 for DLL and Security component to the project (see Figure 10-27).
Figure 10-27: Adding a reference to ADOX library
Now of you add reference in your project, you'll see that ADOX namespace is listed (see Figure 10-28).
Figure 10-28: ADOX namespace listed in project reference
Now the only thing you need to do is to use the namespace and its members. The ADOX classes should be available in your application after adding using ADOX to the project. ADOX provides objects that you can use to create databases, tables, and columns. The Catalog object represent a database and its create method creates a new database. The table object represents a database table. You can add columns to a table using the Columns collection's Append method.
Listing 10-7 creates a new Microsoft Access database called Test.mdb with the table MyTable and two columns, col1 and col2, in it.
Listing 10-7. Using ADOX from managed code
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
' Create SQL and Connection strings
Dim ConnectionString As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; DataSource=c:\Test.mdb"
Try
' Create a Catalog object
Dim ct As New Catalog()
ct.Create(ConnectionString)
' Create a table and two columns
Dim dt As New Table()
dt.Name = "MyTable"
dt.Columns.Append("col1", DataTypeEnum.adInteger, 4)
dt.Columns.Append("col2", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 255)
'Add table to the tables collection
ct.Table.Append(DirectCast(dt, Object))
Catch exp As Exception
MessageBox.Show(exp.Message.ToString())
End Try
End Sub
End Class
Conclusion
Hope this article would have helped you in understanding using ADOX with ADO.NET. See other articles on the website also for further reference.