The CData ADO.NET Provider for Microsoft Access implements two ADO.NET interfaces you can use to retrieve data from Microsoft Access: AccessDataAdapter and AccessDataReader objects. Whereas AccessDataAdapter objects retrieve a single result set of all the data that matches a query, AccessDataReader objects fetch data in subset increments as needed.

Using the AccessDataAdapter

Use the adapter's Fill method to retrieve data from the data source. An empty DataTable instance is passed as an argument to the Fill method. When the method returns, the DataTable instance is populated with the queried data. Note that the AccessDataAdapter is slower than the AccessDataReader because the Fill method needs to retrieve all data from the data source before returning.

The following example selects the ShipName and ShipCity columns of the Orders table:

C#

string connectionString = "DataSource=C:\\My.accdb";

using (AccessConnection connection = new AccessConnection(connectionString)) {
  AccessDataAdapter dataAdapter = new AccessDataAdapter(
  "SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders", connection);

  DataTable table = new DataTable();
  dataAdapter.Fill(table);

  Console.WriteLine("Contents of Orders.");

  foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", row["ShipName"], row["ShipCity"]);
  }
}

VB.NET

Dim connectionString As String = "DataSource=C:\\My.accdb"

Using connection As New AccessConnection(connectionString)
  Dim dataAdapter As New AccessDataAdapter("SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders", connection)

  Dim table As New DataTable()
  dataAdapter.Fill(table)

  Console.WriteLine("Contents of Orders.")

  For Each row As DataRow In table.Rows
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", row("ShipName"), row("ShipCity"))
  Next
End Using