If you are planning on developing an application that uses sql server as your back-end, you gotta check out this component that Microsoft built for free distribution.

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/archit...ml/daab-rm.asp

Summary
The Data Access Application Block is a .NET component that contains optimized data access code that will help you call stored procedures and issue SQL text commands against a SQL Server database. It returns SqlDataReader, DataSet, and XmlReader objects. You can use it as a building block in your own .NET application to reduce the amount of custom code you need to create, test, and maintain. The download provides full C# and Visual Basic .NET source code and comprehensive documentation.