Rating:  - Problem - Solution
I find this book to be totally unsatisfactory at providing an understanding of ADO.NET. Rather than attempting to teach the reader the basics, the author provides a series of problems with possible solutions. Additionally, what information the author does provide to the reader is given in sequential order, bouncing around from fact to fact in a way that would make it extremely difficult to retain the information. It's a bit like trying to read a dictionary one word after the other and expecting that the readers memories are nothing less than perfect. The examples provided do provide readers with a reasonable solution; but, unless you want to thumb through the series of problems and solutions, this book just won't cut it. If you're after a real understanding of ADO.NET, look elseware. If you're after an example based understanding (one that can only get you as far as the examples took you), this might be the book you're looking for.
Rating:  - This book is a must have!
After reading many general ASP.NET books I found I still had many unanswered questions regarding ADO.NET. The ADO.NET examples provided in the general books were very simple and by no means "real world". I ran into many road blocks, most of which could not be solved even after extensive research on the web and many ASP.NET forums. I finally purchased the ADO.NET Cookbook. This book is truely amazing and I have now read it cover to cover. The author uses a unique approach whereby real world problems are described and then solutions are presented and the details are discussed. This unique format makes it very easy to search for, and identify the answers to specific ADO.NET questions. The book covers advanced topics and all explanations are clear and concise - a definite must-have book for anyone who is serious about understanding ADO.NET.
Rating: - Excellent.
The examples in this book provide concise solutions to a wide range of ADO.NET programming issues. I found the code clear, well documented, and easy to incorporate into my own work. The problems solved are more "real-world" and less trivial, and the corresponding solutions more complete, than those in any other ADO.NET book I've seen. Together with the clear discussions, this book is helpful not only for solving problems on the job, but also for in-depth learning about ADO.NET topics.
One more thing that I really liked about this book. It has many examples that use namespaces outside of ADO.NET such as messaging, cryptography, serialization, XML manipulation, remoting, and Web services. This is helping me learn more about these topics (as well as ADO.NET) in this practical reference.
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