If you’ve worked with Visual Studio or .NET for long, you’re probably familiar with the System.Data.DataSet class which enables you to create a collection of data in memory, often retrieved from an SQL database. Within a dataset object, you can have a series of related DataTables that categorize the data. Moving further down, each table can…
All posts in Programming
Looking for Square Pegs: Finding a Solution and Turning it Into Code
(Previously published on AndrewComeau.com.) Introduction Programming and software development is a type of engineering. More than just sitting down and typing code, it’s about designing solutions to everyday problems using technical knowledge gained over years of training and experience. Larger projects can include a series of challenges to solve, some of which can’t be foreseen until they’re staring you…
Weekend Links
I’d planned to spend the weekend writing up a new programming article for the site but it got a little hi-jacked by another project I was working on. On Friday, I needed to figure out how to generate ZIP files from a website and just couldn’t put it down for the weekend. The situation is…
Learning PHP
One of the projects I started late last year was learning some non-Microsoft technologies, one being PHP; a scripting language that is used behind websites in order to provide more dynamic features than ordinary HTML is capable of. PHP has been in use since 1995 and is one of the most widely available web technologies. …
Bringing things up to date …
Every so often, I remember that I have a blog attached to the site and I make new promises to myself to keep it up to date but it doesn’t seem to happen that often. 2011 was a busy year for me which was one reason I didn’t update the blog much. It’s easier to…
New Article: Data Analysis with Microsoft Access
Most of the articles I’ve written on Microsoft Access have been about designing database applications that are meant for regular use. One of the strengths of Access, however, is its ability to import and link to data from different sources. Excel does this too but with Access you can go on to query and report…
Moving beyond Microsoft Access
My latest project came out of left field. Last Saturday, I was going through some archive files and wanted a way to quickly compare all the subfolders and files in two different directories. Not having a program to do it, I decided to write one myself in VB.NET. I decided it would make a good…
Understanding SQL
I’m trying to add some new articles to the site and finish out the Microsoft Access for Beginners series while gradually writing about more advanced topics. Microsoft Access is fun but it takes more than Access to make a programmer. One good example is Structured Query Language (SQL), the scripting language that Access and other…
Design Abstractions
While new technologies … might make things easier for the average professional, they will never replace a solid understanding of the technologies they are built on top of.