Is ADO.NET in .NET Core possible?

Question

Most tutorials are Entity Framework with no mention of Ado.Net in .Net Core projects. I have a "legacy" database, so a EF/"Code-First" approach is not an option.

For ADO.NET connections, is the System.Data.SqlClient available to an ASP.NET Core project?

It is available when I use a .NET Framework project template but is it still available in a .NET Core project?

Answer 1

The existing SqlConnection and other related connections still exists within the System.Data.SqlClient namespace and should work as expected using the full framework or .NET Core.

You'll just need to add the appropriate references and using statements to include it such as through the System.Data.SqlClient namespace as seen below in your project.json file :

and then call it via the syntax you are accustomed to :

using(var connection = new SqlConnection("{your-connection-string}")) {       // Do work here } 

So as long as you have a valid connection string to connect to your existing legacy database, you should be just fine.

Regarding ORM Usage

I also found that some people are using Dapper, a Micro-ORM replacement for Entity Framework, apparenty more flexible. It is there any advantages of using it instead ADO.NET?

These ORMs (object-relational mappers) are handy and often powerful tools that can more easily map your existing database data to specific classes and objects, which can make them easier to use (as opposed to iterating through a data reader, parsing each of your rows and building each object manually).

As far as performance goes, it ultimately depends on what you are going to be doing with your queries. ADO.NET will generally be the fastest as it a bare-bones connection to the database, however in some scenarios Dapper can actually beat it out. Entity Framework, while very useful, generally trails behind in performance, simply because it is such a large ORM.

Again - it ultimately depends on what you are doing, but all are viable options.

Answer 2

.NET Core 2.0 has DataSet, DataTable and SQlDataAdapter. See my answer at https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devfish/2017/05/15/exploring-datatable-and-sqldbadapter-in-asp-net-core-2-0/ .

Code below works fine

public static DataTable ExecuteDataTableSqlDA(SqlConnection conn, CommandType cmdType, string cmdText, SqlParameter[] cmdParms)  {  System.Data.DataTable dt = new DataTable();  System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmdText, conn);  da.Fill(dt);  return dt;  }