This book shows Visual Basic developers how to use Visual Studio 2008 and ADO.NET 3.5 to develop database applications the way the best professionals do. After an introductory section, section 2 shows how to use data sources and datasets for Rapid Application Development and prototyping of Windows Forms applications. Section 3 shows how to build professional 3-layer applications that consist of presentation, business, and database classes. Section 4 shows how to use the new LINQ feature to work with data structures like datasets, SQL Server databases, and XML documents. And section 5 shows how to build database applications by using the new Entity Framework to map business objects to database objects. To ensure mastery, this book presents 23 complete database applications that demonstrate best programming practices. And it's all done in the distinctive Murach style that has been training professional developers for 35 years.