SqlCommand or SqlDataAdapter?

Question

I\'m creating something like a small cashier application that keeps record for the clients, employees, services, sales, and appointments. I\'m using windows forms, and withi

Answer 1

If you are just reading data and not doing updates/inserts/deletes, then SqlDataReader will be faster. You can also combine it with a DataSet. If you wrap the data access objects with using statements, the runtime will handle the connection cleanup logic for you.

A pattern I often use for synchronous access is something like this:

DataTable result = new DataTable();
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(MyConnectionString))
{
    using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(MyQueryText, conn))
    {
        // set CommandType, parameters and SqlDependency here if needed
        conn.Open();
        using (SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
        {
            result.Load(reader);
        }
    }
}

For updates/deletes/inserts, a SqlDataAdapter might be worth considering, but usually only if you already have your data in a DataSet. Otherwise, there are faster/better ways of doing things.