Accessing User-Defined Types in ADO.NET
User-defined types (UDTs) are written using any of the languages supported by the Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime (CLR) that produce verifiable code. This includes Microsoft Visual C# and Microsoft Visual Basic. UDTs allow objects and custom data structures to be stored in a SQL Server database. The data is exposed as public members of a .NET Framework class or structure, and behaviors are defined by methods of the class or structure. A UDT can be used as the column definition of a table, as a variable in a Transact-SQL batch, or as an argument of a Transact-SQL function or stored procedure.
In ADO.NET, the System.Data.SqlClient provider exposes UDTs in the following ways:
Through the System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader as an object.
Through the SqlDataReader as raw bytes.
As a parameter of a System.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter object.
In This Section
Retrieving UDT Data
Describes how to retrieve UDT data and how to specify parameters.Updating UDT Columns with DataAdapters
Describes how to work with UDTs in DataSets and how to update UDT data using DataAdapters.