The old ADO also provided a limited and hard to use ability to operate in disconnected mode, but DataSet takes it to new heights. In addition to being more reliable and much easier to use, DataSet supports both a hierarchical view of the data as XML and a relational view that you can manage after disconnection.

Some have complained that ADO .NET doesn't support "server side cursors" (the ability to execute database commands on the server before a Recordset is created). Microsoft reasoned that this type of processing is nearly always done using stored procedures that are actually part of the database (in the case of SQL Server, these are written in a database language called Transact SQL) and you can trigger these from ADO .NET.

Some of the advantages of the new DataSet object are:

• Read / Write
• Connectionless
• Contains one or more DataTable objects with relationships defined in a collection of DataRelation objects
• Supports filtering and sorting
• The contained DataView object can be bound to data-aware forms controls
• Supports automatic XML serialization (creation of XML document)

As you can see, the DataSet object is a powerful new software tool and is a big part of the entire ADO .NET technology advancement.