Walkthrough: Creating a DataTable in the Dataset Designer

Article
04/28/2015

This walkthrough explains how to create a DataTable (without a TableAdapter) using the Dataset Designer. For information on creating data tables that include TableAdapters, see How to: Create TableAdapters.

Tasks illustrated in this walkthrough include:

Creating a new Windows Application project
Adding a new dataset to the application
Adding a new data table to the dataset
Adding columns to the data table
Setting the primary key for the table

Creating a New Windows Application

To create a new Windows Application project

From the File menu, create a new project.
Choose a programming language in the Project Types pane.
Click Windows Application in the Templates pane.
Name the project DataTableWalkthrough, and then click OK.

Visual Studio adds the project to Solution Explorer and displays Form1 in the designer.

Adding a New Dataset to the Application

To add a new dataset item to the project

On the Project menu, click Add New Item.

The Add New Item Dialog Box appears.
In the Templates box, select DataSet.
Click Add.

Visual Studio will add a file called DataSet1.xsd to the project and open it in the Dataset Designer.

Adding a New DataTable to the Dataset

To add a new data table to the dataset

Drag a DataTable from the DataSet tab of the Toolbox onto the Dataset Designer.

A table named DataTable1 is added to the dataset.

Note

To create a data table that includes a TableAdapter, see Walkthrough: Creating a TableAdapter with Multiple Queries.
Click the title bar of DataTable1 and rename it Music.

Adding Columns to the Data Table

To add columns to the data table

Right-click the Music table. Point to Add, and then click Column.
Name the column SongID.
In the Properties window, set the DataType property to Int16.
Repeat this process and add the following columns:

SongTitle: String

Artist: String

Genre: String

Setting the Primary Key for the Table

All data tables should have a primary key. A primary key uniquely identifies a specific record in a data table.

To set the primary key of the data table

Right-click the SongID column, and then click Set Primary Key.

A key icon appears next to the SongID column.

Saving Your Project

To save the DataTableWalkthrough project

On the File menu, click Save All.

Next Steps

Now that you have created the table, you might want to perform one of the following actions:

To	See
Create a form to input data	Walkthrough: Displaying Data on a Windows Form.
Add data to the table	Adding Data to a Table.
View data in a table	Viewing Data in a Table.
Edit data	Editing Data in a Table
Delete a row from a table	Deleting a Row from a Table

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