Creating a Data Set From Scratch in C#

In a previous post, I outlined the process of creating a DataSet graphically using the Visual Studio Data Set Designer. In this post, however, I am going to go through how to create a Date Set from scratch in code. Sometimes it takes doing something from scratch to learn more about the namespaces and classes.

The System.Data namespace provides access to the ADO.NET architecture. It contains several classes that are used to build and interact with data sets.

DataSet
DataTable
DataRow
DataColumn

The below example is simple, but it shows the classes in action.

C# Program Listing

using System;
using System.Data;

namespace CrtDataSet
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //-- Instantiate the data set and table
            DataSet SongDS = new DataSet();
            DataTable songTable = SongDS.Tables.Add();

            //-- Add columns to the data table
            songTable.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));
            songTable.Columns.Add("Band", typeof(string));
            songTable.Columns.Add("Song", typeof(string));

            //-- Add rows to the data table
            songTable.Rows.Add(1, "Breaking Benjamin", "Diary of Jane");
            songTable.Rows.Add(2, "Three Days Grace", "Pain");
            songTable.Rows.Add(3, "Seether", "Fake It");
            songTable.Rows.Add(4, "Finger Eleven", "Paralyzer");
            songTable.Rows.Add(5, "Three Doors Down", "Citizen Soldier");

            //-- Cycle thru the data table printing the values to the screen
            foreach (DataTable table in SongDS.Tables)
            {
                foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(row["Band"] + " ~ " + row["Song"]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

C# Listing on GitHub

DataSet/DataTable in Debug Mode

Result to Console

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In a future post, I will be exploring other classes of the System.Data namespace.