Martin,

I was really hoping for something really lightweight, with nothing additional to install. My preference is really MS Access. I don't want to install anything additional, if I can get away with it, and I don't want to license anything. I really just want to know what is the best way to store my data, given my needs, that I already have. The utility that this program will provide its users is enough that they really won't care if it runs efficiently or quickly.

It will just be a winform app that runs on a client, no service or network connections, and is only run maybe 5-10 times a year. I don't need the database to be powerful, efficient, or scalable. Honestly, since I only expect to have 2 or 3 tables in it, with only 1000 or so records in each, maybe I should consider just using XML and loading that in and out of a dataset and doing all queries on the DataSet's DataTables.

I used MS Access in school for a few simple projects, so I was inclined toward it if I could just create a basic Access file and have my program access it without installing anything additional. Does the .NET framework include everything it needs to push and pull data in and out of an Access database, is there a distributable DLL that I would need to install, or would I need to license something?

Unless there is a problem, I may just store it as an XML file, since the only type of queries that I run will be SELECT * FROM table1 INNER JOIN table2 ON key WHERE (criteria). I don't need anything that I can't just doing in a DataSet.

David

>Hi, David.
>
>>I want to know what is built into .NET. Can I simply create an empty MS Access database file, have my installer install it, and then access it through ADO.NET? Because the program will only be run occasionally, it doesn't need to be super fast. It will only be run to create quarterly reports.
>
>Beside MSDE or SQL Express, you may take a look at VistaDB. It is a small database that you license as a developer (not expensive) and then use royalty free. The main advantage is a very small footprint and easy installation, while still providing native access from .NET. One of the problems with the "free" SQL Servers is that the installation is pretty big (surely not something you'll want to download from the net).
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>Hope this helps,