You're looking at data handling from a very VFP perspective. You have to remember that almost all other languages don't have ANY native data manipulation capabilities but instead do much of their data munging on the back-end server. You need to think differently and keep that in mind. Go back to VFP and look at how you work with ADO, then you'll get an idea of how things worked in the COM world in products outside of VFP and why things are the way they are in .NET.

I think John's post is accurate, but you need to get the basics down first. Databinding, Datasets, Datatables, etc.

>You know, I guess I was spoiled with Visual FoxPro; it seems that Microsoft (and earlier with Fox Software) took such a simple approach to handling data that I cannot now understand how it is that this can be made so complex in .NET.
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>Yes, I am complaining.
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>I am pouring through C# books, and all kinds of other books, and I am telling you, there is no simple way to do data in .NET. Of course, admittedly, I am speaking from inexperience with .NET. I am still trying to learn C#, much less how to handle data. Still, data handling, in my opinion, is a much more complex matter in .NET. Why does it have to be this way? It seems that there is a multitude of ways to handle data, using LINQ, ADO.NET, and so on. I just don't know where to begin. I just ordered Murach's ADO.NET 3.5 with C# book to see if this might help me a bit.
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>Also, a few years ago when I got into C# in some local colleges, C# also seemed cryptic to me, but it now seems much easier. I guess it is a matter of time and experience. I don't think it is this way entirely with .NET data handling. There seem to be many more steps to handling data, unlike VFP and other xBased languages.
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>Okay, I am finished with my complaining for now. :)
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>Does anyone want to help me complain, or perhaps direct me to a simple tutorial on .NET data-handling?
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>Has anyone else on UT here felt just as frustrated as I am feeling, or did y'all get over it 3 or 4 years ago while I was still making money with VFP?