The following example shows what a simple ADO.NET application that connects to the Northwind database and returns a list of Categories. The example writes the output to the console, or command prompt.

SqlClient
[Visual Basic]
Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

Public Class Sample

Public Shared Sub Main()
Dim nwindConn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("Data Source=localhost;" & _
"User Id=sa;Password=pwd;Initial Catalog=northwind")

Dim catCMD As SqlCommand = nwindConn.CreateCommand()
catCMD.CommandText = "SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName FROM Categories"

nwindConn.Open()

Dim myReader As SqlDataReader = catCMD.ExecuteReader()

Do While myReader.Read()
Console.WriteLine(vbTab & "{0}" & vbTab & "{1}", myReader.GetInt32(0), myReader.GetString(1))
Loop

myReader.Close()
nwindConn.Close()
End Sub
End Class
[C#]
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

class Sample
{
public static void Main()
{
SqlConnection nwindConn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=localhost;User Id=sa;Password=pwd;Initial Catalog=northwind");

SqlCommand catCMD = nwindConn.CreateCommand();
catCMD.CommandText = "SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName FROM Categories";

nwindConn.Open();

SqlDataReader myReader = catCMD.ExecuteReader();

while (myReader.Read())
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}", myReader.GetInt32(0), myReader.GetString(1));
}

myReader.Close();
nwindConn.Close();
}
}
OleDb
[Visual Basic]
Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.OleDb
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

Public Class Sample

Public Shared Sub Main()
Dim nwindConn As OleDbConnection = New OleDbConnection("Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=localhost;" & _
"User Id=sa;Password=pwd;Initial Catalog=northwind")

Dim catCMD As OleDbCommand = nwindConn.CreateCommand()
catCMD.CommandText = "SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName FROM Categories"

nwindConn.Open()

Dim myReader As OleDbDataReader = catCMD.ExecuteReader()

Do While myReader.Read()
Console.WriteLine(vbTab & "{0}" & vbTab & "{1}", myReader.GetInt32(0), myReader.GetString(1))
Loop

myReader.Close()
nwindConn.Close()
End Sub
End Class
[C#]
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;

class Sample
{
public static void Main()
{
OleDbConnection nwindConn = new OleDbConnection("Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=localhost;User Id=sa;Password=pwd;Initial Catalog=northwind");

OleDbCommand catCMD = nwindConn.CreateCommand();
catCMD.CommandText = "SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName FROM Categories";

nwindConn.Open();

OleDbDataReader myReader = catCMD.ExecuteReader();

while (myReader.Read())
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}", myReader.GetInt32(0), myReader.GetString(1));
}

myReader.Close();
nwindConn.Close();
}
}