Most ADO.NET providers include a strongly typed
DataReader
.
Every DataReader implements two interfaces:
IDataReader (which defines the core reader
functionality) and IDataRecord (which allows you
to access the current record values). Because
IDataReader extends
IDataRecord, you can use the
IDataReader to access all the
IDataRecord and IDataReader
functionality when writing provider-agnostic data access code.
Strongly typed DataReader objects typically add
type-safe methods that allow you to retrieve column values as
database-specific data types. Some DataReader
classes for ADO.NET providers are shown in Table 21-1.