There are several ways to convert and cast values in .NET. For example, DirectCast versus System.Convert and if you are a VB.NET'er, you have the CInt, CBool, Cxxx functions. It is along these lines that I offer this quiz: What are the differences between the following ways to cast an object?

Pablo Castro, Microsoft's Program Manager of the ADO.NET Team, has a good post last week [http://blogs.msdn.com/dataaccess/archive/2005/05/19/420065.aspx] that helps clarify how bath updates are intended to work in ADO.NET 2. This is a common discussion that I am drawn into since the DataAdapter

A few days ago Raymond Lewallen blogged about refactoring [https://www.johnpapa.net/blogs/raymond.lewallen/archive/2005/04/26/62457.aspx] some VB.NET code using interfaces, and abstract classes. I followed up with a C# example of the same code in a blog [https://www.johnpapa.net/blogs/john.papa/arch

For a look at a non ADO.NET solution ... Dino Esposito [http://weblogs.asp.net/despos/] wrote an article called Collections and Data Binding [http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/05/CuttingEdge/default.aspx] in a recent MSDN Magazine [http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag] issue. Its a good read

I have been writing for MSDN Magazine [http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/default.aspx] for almost 7 years with what started out as feature articles and moved into my current Data Points [http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/find/default.aspx?type=Ti&phrase=Data%20Points&words=exact] column. 7