As one of the most popular programming languages in the world, Visual Basic continues to expand on the functionality and flexibility of its framework. This book explains how to use Visual Basic 2005 to write efficient database applications that can be used throughout an enterprise.With this teaching tool, you'll learn how to use queries, views, and stored procedures to efficiently access and manipulate data from your applications. You'll get a firm grasp on using ADO.NET as well as OleDb, SQL, and Oracle to access specific databases. Plus, hands-on examples and try-it-out exercises help you put your reading into practice so that with each chapter, you'll gradually build the pieces of a single application.What you will learn from this book How ADO.NET continues to evolve as a building block for accessing and manipulating data in relational databases Ways to encrypt and decrypt data, hash passwords, and further secure access to your data Techniques for accessing your Web Service from both Windows(r) and Web applications Best practices for using business logic and data access components to produce report data or update data in your back-end databases Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to learn to write database applications and back-end databases, such as Microsoft(r) Access, Microsoft(r) SQL Server, and Oracle(r). Some experience with Visual Basic 2005 is helpful but not required.Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Thearon Willis is a senior consultant with over 20 years of programming experience. He started writing applications using the Basic language in 1980 and later moved on to Visual Basic and finally to Visual Basic.Net. He began working with databases in 1987 and has been hooked on writing database applications ever since. He has experience with SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2 but works with SQL Server on a daily basis. Thearon has programmed in several other languages, some of which include C++, Assembler, Pascal, and COBOL. However, he enjoys Visual Basic.Net the best as it provides the features needed to quickly build Windows and Web applications as well as components and Web Services. He currently develops intranet applications, Web Services, and server-side and client-side utilities using Visual Basic.Net. Most of these applications and utilities are database-driven and make use of XML and XSL.