Rating: 
Summary: Save your money!!
Review: The author obvously has a command of her topic, however as voiced in other reviews, good luck in getting many of the examples to work. With many of the excercises half completed by the author before you begin, you can waste alot of time trying to figure out where you went wrong only to discover when you load her version "Final" version of the code it still won't run. In fact her code actually caused Visual Studio to shut down twice before I got through chapter six. Additionally, I feel too much time was spent entering 'Run Time' code for items that are much more easliy accomplished with controls and/or property windows. I realize it is good to understand the actual code, but why spend so much time writing code that can be generated for you? I only wish I had read the other reviews before I made this purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice fast-track into the technology, but limiting in details
Review: The book for me basically killed 3 birds with one stone. I am an experienced database application developer, but not in vb.net, c#, or ado.net. I did the exercises both in vb.net and c#. As for the program bugs, annoying, but having to debug some of the programs just helped me learn the language syntax. As for the ado.net, not confusing, but would have like to see more details in the concepts/topics the chapters were trying to explain. Over all, the book for me was nice fast-track into the technology, but limiting in details.
Rating:
Summary: Just read 90% of these reviews.
Review: The main reason i'm even writing this review is because for some reason I didn't think to look at book reviews before picking up this book. Little did I know that this book is actually a great door-stop and nothing more. Just read most of the reviews here and you will understand why.
-Poor coding
-Poor format
...etc
Please pick up anything else! I really enjoyed "Database Programming with C#" as it is much clearer and written much better.
Rating:
Summary: Can You Say Refund?
Review: This book is full of errors. I do not know how you others can say the example code and even the code typed in the text of the book is accurate enough! Did you actually code as you read this book? I spent a lot of time rewriting the code to get it to work - I got to the point where I was spending more time fixing the code than concentrating on the lesson itself.Save your money - buy from WROX Press instead. I deviated this one time and this is where it got me - 40 bucks in the hole.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Starters
Review: This book is not for starters. People who are staring up with ADO.net or event have some experience in ADO do not use this book. It was such a waste of money for me. I recommend the following book for starters "murach's vb.net database programming with ado.net" for vb programmers.
Rating:
Summary: ADO .Net Book = Dot Painful
Review: This book SHOULD have been a great foundation of knowledge to get existing VB/ADO programmers into ADO.Net. Maybe I've been reading it left-to-right, and should have been reading it right-to-left. When - and I say when - the examples in the book DID work (and, yes, they all probably should have worked) I was still scratching my head and saying "Okay, so relate this to the real world. Or, at least relate this to what I've done with VB 6.0 ADO so I can do something with it.". Programming examples are monotonous to say the least. It's a cookbook approach of "Add the lines of code to this project...". Falls flat. I wouldn't throw the book away, but I think it'll probably just gather dust on my bookshelf. -Unless it props the door open! I've found the Microsoft Press .Net books have been uneven in overall quality and user (my) satisfaction. I tend to prefer the Wrox .Net books - they may not have the agonizing level of detail that the Microsoft Press books do, but they read much better. Much more of a "Aha!" response after reading them.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not for VB.NET / C# Newbies
Review: This has a number of good examples, real enough that you can use them as a stepping stone to your own programming. This book is also something of a 'Rosetta Stone' by listing the equivalent VB.NET and C# code for exploiting ADO.NET. Shortcomings? Well, the examples, as noted in many other reviews, require a level of expertise in VB.NET and/or C# that frustrates folks who just finished a language 'step-by-step' book. Sometimes the objects that connect to Access and SQL Server databases need a tweak for your particular machine, and the error messages generated may send you scrambling for the installlation notes. Anoher caveat is that you can't run the ASP.NET examples with a standalone XP Home Edition system - it doesn't include IIS. Nonetheless, a good book, perhaps one you'll want to keep as a reference.
Rating: 
Summary: good overview
Review: This is a good overview of the key elements in dealing with databases display in .NET. Unlike the ASP.NET books that try to cover everything, this book focuses on the details of key elements of reading and writing data on Windows and Web forms. I thought it was very helpful in clarifying the relationsips between data adapters, lists, tables, columns and cells. Unlike other reviewers, I did not have trouble with the examples, but I only worked the VB.net examples and read the errata online beforehand at he microsoft site.
I recommend it if you want more information about tables and cells but don't need the super-indepth core reference information. Yes, it is siimple, but that is what I needed that I did not get from 600 page ASP.NET books (some of which are very good, like ASP.NET Kick Start). I earned a lot.
Rating:
Summary: This is the worst book I've EVER read
Review: This is a TERRIBLE book. The example code won't run properly (even the solution files won't work). I've read six chapters and not one single sample code worked. The contents follow some "childish" style: "do as I dictate and forget theory". Microsoft acts like nothing is happening about this book, and that really disappoints me. I have several books from them and I use them all the time, but this was the first I regret buying. Save your money. There must be better books out there and I'm back again looking for one to really teach me ADO.NET.
Rating:
Summary: Do not spend money on this book!
Review: Wait for a colleage to waste $40 on it, then pick it out of the trash. I can hardly believe that Microsoft would put their imprimatur on such a book. Numerous code samples simply do not work. Connection strings for Riordan's own installation have to be replaced; it you don't know already know something about ADO.NET, you'll be in despair. The format is a "color by numbers" sort of thing; the various objects are poorly explained. Different ways of creating objects should not be mixed together in the same program; it makes the source unreadable, and pedagogically useless. I learned a lot trying to fix the errata myself; I should get paid.
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