Summary
Using stored procedures is an efficient way to submit SQL to a back-end database. However, one of the downsides is that the code is not as readable, because you must look in two places to really see all the code. In this chapter, you learned:
How to call a stored procedure to insert, delete, and retrieve data into/from a table in SQL Server from ADO.NET.
How to retrieve data from an output parameter provided by a stored procedure.
How to use both the SqlClient and OleDb namespaces when working with stored procedures.
TIP
This chapter, and the book in general, focuses on using Microsoft tools and technologies. If you're interested in working with other data sources, you'll be forced to use the OleDb namespace (at least, until a managed provider for your data source becomes available), and you'll use techniques similar to those you used with ADO in order to connect to the data and to call stored procedures. If you're working with Oracle, you can start by studying Microsoft's Knowledge Base articles on the topic. You can find one article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q229919.