Windows Forms FAQ resources

4. Windows Forms Data Binding

4.9 How do I bind a mdb file to a datagrid?

You can use the classes in the System.Data.OleDb namespace to read a MDB file into a datagrid. You instantiate a OleDbConnection object using a connection string to your MDB file. You then instantiate a OleDbDataAdapter that uses this connection object and a SQL query. Next you create a DataSet object, use the OleDbDataAdapter to fill this dataset, and finally attached this dataset to your datagrid. Here is the code that does this.

private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

// Set the connection and sql strings

// assumes your mdb file is in your root

string connString = @"Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;data source=C:\northwind.mdb";

string sqlString = "SELECT * FROM customers";

// Connection object

OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(connString);

// Create data adapter object

OleDbDataAdapter dataAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(sqlString, connection);

// Create a dataset object and fill with data using data adapter's Fill method

DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();

dataAdapter.Fill(dataSet, "customers");

// Attach dataset's DefaultView to the datagrid control

dataGrid1.DataSource = dataSet.Tables["customers"].DefaultView;

}