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Dataset Extended Property

Dataset is a very useful language construct. Normally we store the information which we get from datasources like database, xml etc into it and later retrieved the information to display on the website(or windows based application depends upon the requirement).

But as a programmer sometimes it is required to add some more useful information about the dataset which can be useful at some other point of time. For example what is the purpose of the dataset, the time stamp at which the dataset is refreshed. Fortunately microsoft has provided extended properties from which you can store information about the dataset in the dataset itself.

Scenario

Consider an example of a function in which you are getting the information of the employees who were absent last week. Now your dataset is required by some other programmer who is working on some other methods(or functions) so that he can display the information in the form of reports. To help him you are adding the purpose and timespan at which data is refreshed into the dataset using extended property.

DataSet ds = new DataSet();

//  Doing some database transactions

ds.ExtendedProperties.Add("PURPOSE", "Storing absent employees information");
	
ds.ExtendedProperties.Add("REFRESHTIMESPAN", DateTime.Now);

Now to use the extended property the other programmer can retrieve it like

ds.ExtendedProperties["PURPOSE"].ToString()
ds.ExtendedProperties["REFRESHTIMESPAN"].ToString()

As you can see in the example above we are storing the information in the form of key value pair and later retrieving the information from the key.

Note

The key in the extended property is case sensitive. It means that ds.ExtendedProperties["PURPOSE"] is different from ds.ExtendedProperties["Purpose"].

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Tuesday, October 18, 2011

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