What is a strongly typed dataset?

Question

What is a strongly typed dataset? (.net)

Answer 1

Short answer: A dataset which is guaranteed (by the compiler) to hold a specific type.

Answer 2

A strongly typed dataset is one that has specific types for the tables and their columns.

You can say

EmployeeDataset ds = ...
EmployeeRow row = ds.Employees.Rows[0];
row.Name = "Joe";

instead of:

DataSet ds = ...
DataRow row = ds.Tables["Employees"].Rows[0];
row["Name"] = "Joe";

This helps because you catch mistakes in naming at compile time, rather than run time and also enforces types on columns.

Answer 3

A dataset which is tightly to a specific table at compile time so you can access the columns of a table using actual column name instead of index.

Answer 4

MSDN

Answer 5

It looks like DataSet has already been covered, but for completeness, note that in .NET 3.5 there are good alternatives for simple data access; in particular, things like LINQ to SQL. This has a similar objective, but retains a much purer simple OO model to your data classes.

Answer 6

A headache...

Sorry... I've been struggling with this beast for a while.. For this reason.