Delphi Database Programming With ADO

Free Delphi Database Programming Course
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ESSENTIALS
Delphi Database Programming Course
Free online database programming course for beginner Delphi
· A Beginner’s Guide to developers. Focus on ADO techniques.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi About the Course: Related Resources
• A Beginners Guide To
ADO DB programming Delphi Programming
This free online course is perfect for Delphi
· Delphi for .NET database beginners as well as for those who want
• BOOK: Advanced Delphi
a broad overview of the art of database
· Free code APPs & Developer's Guide to ADO
programming with Delphi. Developers will learn
• Before you buy ADO VCL
VCL how to design, develop and test a database
• More ADO articles
application using ADO with Delphi. This course • Full (free) code apps and
· A-Z Site Index focuses on the most common uses of ADO in a components
Delphi application: Connecting to a database using • More tutorials and articles
BUYER'S GUIDE TADOConnection, work with Tables and Queries,
handle database exception, create reports, etc. From Other Guides
What's New and Hot • About Databases
Prerequisites:
Top Picks-Tool/VCL Elsewhere on the Web
Readers should have at a working knowledge of
the Windows operating system, as well as some • AdoAnywhere
Beginners Here decent level of Delphi Programming knowledge
base. New developers should first explore A
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Beginner's Guide to Delphi Programming
Database
Distrubuted comp. Chapters:
The chapters of this course are being created and updated dynamically on
Game Programming this site. Chapters (for now) include:
Graphics
CHAPTER 1:
Internet/Intranet Fundamentals of Database Development (with Delphi)
Mathematics Delphi as the database programming tool, Data Access with Delphi...just a few
words, Building a new MS Access database.
Multimedia Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa010101a.htm?PM=ss12_delphi (1 of 6) [24.11.2002 16:55:23]

Delphi Pascal/IDE
CHAPTER 2:
Screen saver dev. Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO?
Connecting to a database. What is the BDE? What is ADO? How to connect to an
VCL Using
Access database - the UDL file? Looking forward: the smallest ADO example.
VCL Write/Enhance Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
Web Services
CHAPTER 3:
Windows/Shell/API Pictures inside a database
Kylix (D on Linux) Displaying images (BMP, JPEG, ...) inside an Access database with ADO and Delphi.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
Coding standards
CHAPTER 4:
Books/Publications Data browsing and navigation
Building a data browsing form - linking data components. Navigating through a
Dev. Utilities recordset with a DBNavigator.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
CHAPTER 5:
Humor and Fun Behind data in datasets
What is the state of data? Iterating through a recordset, bookmarking and reading
Icons and Glyphs the data from a database table.
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
CHAPTER 6:
VCL & Tools Data modifications
Learn how to add, insert and delete records from a database table.
Subject Library
CHAPTER 7:
Queries with ADO
All articles on this Take a look at how you can take advantage of the TADOQuery component to boost
topic your ADO-Delphi productivity.
Stay up-to-date! CHAPTER 8:

Subscribe to our Data filtering
newsletter. Using Filters to narrow the scope of data that is presented to the user.
Enter Email Go! Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
Advertising CHAPTER 9:
> Free Credit Report Searching for data
> Free Psychics Walking through various methods of data seeking and locating while developing
ADO based Delphi database applications.
CHAPTER 10:
ADO Cursors
How ADO uses cursors as a storage and access mechanism, and what you should
do to choose the best cursor for your Delphi ADO application.
CHAPTER 11:
From Paradox to Access with ADO and Delphi

Focusing on the TADOCommand components and using the SQL DDL language to
help porting your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access.
CHAPTER 12:
Master detail relationships
How to use master-detail database relationships, with ADO and Delphi, to deal
effectively with the problem of joining two database tables to present information.
CHAPTER 13:
New...Access Database from Delphi
How to create an MS Access database without the MS Access. How to create a
table, add an index to an existing table, how to join two tables and set up
referential integrity. No MS Access, only Pure Delphi code.
CHAPTER 14:
Charting with Databases
Introducing the TDBChart component by integrating some basic charts into a
Delphi ADO based application to quickly make graphs directly for the data in
recordsets without requiring any code.
CHAPTER 15:
Lookup!
See how to use lookup fields in Delphi to achieve faster, better and safer data
editing. Also, find how to create a new field for a dataset and discuss some of the
key lookup properties. Plus, take a look at how to place a combo box inside a
DBGrid.
CHAPTER 16:
Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi
While working in a database application you change data in a database, the
database becomes fragmented and uses more disk space than is necessary.
Periodically, you can compact your database to defragment the database file. This
article shows how to use JRO from Delphi in order to compact an Access database
from code.
CHAPTER 17:
Database reports with Delphi and ADO
How to use QuickReport set of components to create database reports with Delphi.
See how to produce database output with text, images, charts and memos - quickly
and easily.
CHAPTER 18:
Data Modules
How to use the TDataModule class - central location for collecting and
encapsulating DataSet and DataSource objects, their properties, events and code.
CHAPTER 19:
Handling database errors
Introducing error handling techniques in Delphi ADO database application

development. Find out about global exception handling and dataset specific error
events. See how to write an error logging procedure.
CHAPTER 20:
From ADO Query to HTML
How to export your data to HTML using Delphi and ADO. This is the first step in
publishing your database on the Internet - see how to create a static HTML page
from an ADO query.
CHAPTER 21:
Using ADO in Delphi 3 and 4 (before AdoExpress)
How to import Active Data Objects (ADO) type-libraries in Delphi 3 and 4 to create
a wrapper around components that encapsulate the functionality of ADO objects,
properties and methods.
CHAPTER 22:
Transactions in Delphi ADO database development
How many times have you wanted to insert, delete or update a lot of records
collectively wanting that either all of them get executed or if there is an error then
none is executed at all? This article will show you how to post or undo a series of
changes made to the source data in a single call.
CHAPTER 23:
Deploying Delphi ADO database applications
It is time to make your Delphi ADO database application available for others to run.
Once you have created a Delphi ADO based solution, the final step is to successfully
deploy it to the user's computer.
CHAPTER 24:
Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real Problems - Real Solutions
In real world situations, really doing database programming is much more complex
than writing about. This chapter points to some great Delphi Programming Forum
threads initiated by this Course - discussions that solve problems on the field.
CHAPTER 25:
TOP ADO programming TIPS - DB/25
Collection of frequently asked questions, answers, tips and tricks about ADO
programming.
CHAPTER 26:
Quiz: Delphi ADO Programming - DB/26
What would it look like: Who Wants to be a Delphi ADO Database Programming
Guru - the trivia game.

Before this course started, there was an online poll asking for you to decide: what type of
data access mechanism are you most interested in. After more than 9000 votes it seems
that most of you are primarily interested in ADO/MS Access approach. From the fifth version
Delphi supports ADO with ADOExpress. AdoExpress components are available with the
Enterprise version of Delphi 5 and can be bought by the owners oh the Professional version.
Prior to version 5 Delphi does not support ADO. In order to participate in this course you'll
have to get your hands on AdoExpress or some other ADO enabled component set. Some of
the third-party ADO data-components can be found here: ADO Delphi VCL components. Most
of the techniques that are to be addressed in the following chapters to this course should be
easily translated and used with Paradox/dBase or Interbase users.
Those are the poll results ("What approach would you like to learn?"):
. ADO/MSAccess 4625 votes (51%)
. Paradox - BDE 167 votes (2%)
. dBase - BDE 66 votes (1%)
. Interbase 4227 votes (47%)
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Fundamentals of Database Development (with Delphi) - DB/1 - Page 1/2
Delphi Programming
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ESSENTIALS
Fundamentals of Database
· A Beginner’s Guide to Development
Page 1: Delphi as the database programming tool.
Delphi Programming
More of this Feature
· Free course: Delphi Many Delphi beginners start with • Page 2: New...Database
ADO DB programming projects like "My Notepad" when

Join the Discussion
beginning programming with Delphi,
"Post your views and
· Delphi for .NET other developers spend nights and
comments to this chapter of
days in writing various multimedia the free Delphi database
· Free code APPs & and graphics applications, but all of Programming Course"
VCL them will sunner or later realize that Discuss!
90% of today's software interacts
· A-Z Site Index with some data stored in some way. Related Resources
• free DB Course.TOC
BUYER'S GUIDE • Delphi DB articles
There's no doubt about it, Delphi has
powerful and reliable data-
Elsewhere on the Web
What's New and Hot management capabilities. Application
developers building the next • About Databases
Top Picks-Tool/VCL • Fundamentals of Relational
generation of business software are
attracted to Delphi for several Database Design
Beginners Here reasons. With Delphi we can create
software that operates with just about
COM/OLE/ActiveX
all types of desktop databases like Paradox, dBase or MS Access.
Database We can also use Delphi to build solutions for client-server
development.
Distrubuted comp.
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa020601a.htm (1 of 3) [24.11.2002 16:55:41]

Game Programming Data Access with Delphi...just a few words

Delphi ships with more than 40 prebuilt database components
Graphics and provides a visual programming environment that includes an
Internet/Intranet integrated code editor, Database Form wizard that speeds up
steps to create a browsable data form and Data Module Designer
Mathematics that can be used to share data access among multiple forms.
Multimedia Several other database specialized tools are also provided with
Delphi to help us code faster and easier.
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev. The Data Access page of the Components Palette provides
components used to connect to a data source. In the Data
VCL Using Controls page, data aware components are ones that (after
VCL Write/Enhance Delphi connects to a database) can be use to retreive and send
data to or from a database. The components on the ADO page
Web Services use ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) to access the database
Windows/Shell/API information through OLEDB. The components on the InterBase
page access an InterBase database directly.
Kylix (D on Linux)
Don't runaway
Coding standards Database programming, of course, is not trivial. In this course
we will try to bring closer some of the techniques, problems and
Books/Publications
solutions to database programming with Delphi along with all the
Dev. Utilities secrets it hides from us.
Before we move on to using various data components/tools in
FAQs/Tips/Tricks Delphi we should first see some of the concepts of database
Free Code Projects design and try to build a simple database.
Humor and Fun

Next page > Building a new Database > Page 2
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers All graphics (if any) in this feature created by Zarko Gajic.
Training/CD/Video
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· Download free source code applications and components.
· Talk about Delphi Programming, real time. Start a chat now!
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· Tutorials, articles, tech. tips by date: 2001|2000|1999|1998 or by
TOPIC.
All articles on this
· NEXT ARTICLE: Inside the EXE.
topic Storing more that just code in the application executable file. Working with
resources from Delphi.
Stay informed with all new and interesting things about Delphi (for free).
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ESSENTIALS
Fundamentals of Database
· A Beginner’s Guide to Development
Page 2: Building a new Database.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi Before we start interacting with • Page 1: Fundamentals
databases using Delphi, it is a good
ADO DB programming Printer friendly version
idea to get a feel what modern
· Delphi for .NET databases are about. Join the Discussion
When you think of a word database
· Free code APPs & "Post your views and
you should generally think of any type comments to this chapter of
VCL of data stored inside a computer - the free Delphi database
even a SomeFile.pas file (code to Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index some Delphi unit) is some kind of Discuss!
database. Another type of database is
BUYER'S GUIDE Related Resources
a Word document or a simple .ini file.
To access an .ini file we generally use
• Delphi DB articles
What's New and Hot routines and techniques for typed or
untyped files.
• About Databases
Building a modern database • Database Design and
Beginners Here application requires us to think of Modeling
COM/OLE/ActiveX data in a relational way. The basic • Fundamentals of Relational
idea behind the relational model is Database Design
Database that a database consists of a series of
Distrubuted comp. tables (or relations) that can be
manipulated using operations that return tables or so-called
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa020601b.htm (1 of 5) [24.11.2002 16:55:51]

Game Programming views. Simply put, a database is best described as a collection

of related data. A database may include many different tables.
Graphics Tables are like grids where columns are called fields and rows
Internet/Intranet are called ... rows.
Mathematics
To fully address the concepts of database design and relational
Multimedia model we would need an extra online course. For a great
overview check out the Fundamentals of Relational Database
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Design.
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using New...Database
Since this course will primarily focus on ADO/Access Delphi
VCL Write/Enhance approach to database programming we will now see how to
Web Services create a new .mdb database in MS Access.
If you have never built a database with MS Access, go see MS
Windows/Shell/API Access tutorials for a great info.
Kylix (D on Linux)
I hope you know that on this site there is a Members Area where
Coding standards Delphi developers can upload their free code applications and
components. Each member has it's name, an email address and
Books/Publications
a possibly a web page. If we would like to keep track of every
Dev. Utilities application posted to this community we could assemble a
database of three tables: Applications (general information about
FAQs/Tips/Tricks an application), Authors (who made the application) and Types
Free Code Projects (what kind of app is it). Let's see how to do just that:
Humor and Fun

Start Access and create a blank database named
Icons and Glyphs aboutdelphi.mdb. Create three tables in Design view:
Applications, Authors and Types.
Jobs and Offers Let's see the structure of those tables:
Training/CD/Video
The Applications table contains fields that match the application
VCL & Tools
description requirements: Name, Description, Author, Type,
Size, Cost, DateUpl and Picture. Name, Description, Author and
Subject Library Type fields contain Text data, 50 characters by default. The Size
filed is of a Number (Single) type - used to store the size of a file
in Kb. The Cost field is a Currency field - if the app is shareware
All articles on this or commercial. The DateUpl field is a date/time value. The
Picture is of a OLE Object type and will hold an (optional) picture
topic for an application. Let the filed Name be the primary key.
The Authors table contains fields that match the application

author requirements: AuthorName, Email and Web. All the fields
contain character data (50 chars by default). Let the filed
AuthorName be the primary key.
The Types table contains only one field: TypeName which is the

Stay up-to-date! primary key for this table. This table will be used to store the
Subscribe to our type of application (graphical, multimedia, database, ...)
newsletter.
Enter Email Go! We now only have to set up a relation in the relationships
window and the database is ready.
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Both relations should "Enforce Referential Integrity" with only

"Cascade Update Related Records" check on.
Filling some data

In order to have some "dummy" data in a database fill in the
Types table with the following 4 records:
'Game','Database','Internet','Graphics'. This values will be used
when choosing the type of the application stored in the
Applications table. Next, add one row to the Authors table:
'Delphi Guide', 'delphi.guide@about.com',
'http://delphi.about.com'. Finally let the only one row in the
Applications table look like: 'Zoom', 'Zooming the Destop',
'Delphi Guide', 'Graphics', 10, 0, 02/20/2001. For the moment
leave the last field (Picture) empty.
What to do with this "blank" database...I'll show you that in the

following chapters of this course.
DB Course Next Chapter >>

>> Chapter 2: Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO?
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TOPIC.
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Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO? - DB/2 - Page 1/4
Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO?
Page 1: Delphi database connectivity.
· A Beginner’s Guide to More of this Feature
Delphi Programming As shown in the previous chapter of • Page 2: the BDE
• Page 3: ADO, ADO Objects
· Free course: Delphi this course, a database is a collection
• Page 4: Connecting to a
of one or more tables that store data
ADO DB programming database
in a structured format. These tables,
· Delphi for .NET contain data that is represented by
rows and fields. When a database Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & consists of two or more tables, these "Post your views and
tables generally contain separate yet comments to this chapter of
VCL
related data. MS Access, Interbase or the free Delphi database
· A-Z Site Index SQL Server use a single file (Access, Programming Course"
Discuss!
the *.mdb file) that represents the
BUYER'S GUIDE entire database. On the other hand, Related Resources
Paradox and dBase databases are
defined with separate tables and files • Delphi DB articles
What's New and Hot that represent indexes and table
Top Picks-Tool/VCL relations. All the files needed to
describe a Paradox database are
usually stored in a single directory.
Beginners Here Delphi, of course, has means of working with both approaches.
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Database With Delphi, we can connect to different types of databases:
local or client/server (remote server) database. Local databases
Distrubuted comp. are stored on your local drive or on a local area network. Remote
database servers usually reside on a remote machine. Types of

Game Programming local databases are Paradox, dBase and MS Access. Types of
client/server databases are MS SQL Server, Interbase or Oracle.
Graphics Local databases are often called single-tiered databases. A single-
Internet/Intranet tiered database is a database in which any changes, such as
editing the data, inserting records, or deleting records - happen
Mathematics immediately. Single-tiered databases are limited in how much
Multimedia data the tables can hold and the number of users your
application can support. When the database information includes
Delphi Pascal/IDE complicated relationships between several tables, or when the
number of clients grows, you may want to use a two-tiered or
Screen saver dev.
multi-tiered application. Client applications run on local
VCL Using machines; the application server is typically on a server, and the
database itself might be on another server. The idea behind the
VCL Write/Enhance
multi-tier architecture is that client applications can be very
Web Services small because the application servers do most of the work. This
enables you to write what are called thin-client applications.
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux) When we write a database application in Delphi, we need to use
some database engine to access a data in a database. The
Coding standards database engine permits you to concentrate on what data you
want to access, instead of how to access it. From the first
Books/Publications version, Delphi provides database developers with the BDE
(Borland Database Engine). Beside the BDE, Delphi from the fifth
Dev. Utilities
version supports Microsoft ADO database interface.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects This course will primarily focus on MS Access local database
producing the single-tiered application.
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs Next page > The BDE > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools More Delphi
Subject Library · Talk about Delphi Programming, real time. Start a chat now!
All articles on this TOPIC.
topic · NEXT ARTICLE: "The Big Brother" Delphi code toolkit.
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Page 2: The Borland Database Engine
Delphi Programming The BDE is a common data access • Page 1: Delphi database
connectivity
· Free course: Delphi layer for all of Borland's products,
• Page 3: ADO, ADO Objects
including Delphi and C++Builder. The
ADO DB programming • Page 4: Connecting to a
BDE consists of a collection of DLLs
database
· Delphi for .NET and utilities. The beauty of the BDE is
the fact that all of the data
· Free code APPs & manipulation is considered Join the Discussion
"transparent" to the developer. BDE "Post your views and
VCL
comes with a set of drivers that comments to this chapter of
· A-Z Site Index enables your application to talk to the free Delphi database
several different types of databases. Programming Course"
Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE These drivers translate high-level
database commands (such as open or Related Resources
post) and tasks (record locking or • free DB Course.TOC
What's New and Hot SQL construction) into commands • BDE and Delphi
Top Picks-Tool/VCL specific to a particular database type:
Paradox, dBASE, MS Access or any
ODBC data source. The BDE API
Beginners Here • BDE Alternative
(Application Programming Interface)
COM/OLE/ActiveX consists of more than 200 procedures
and functions, which are available through the BDE unit.
Database Fortunately, you almost never need to call any of these routines
Distrubuted comp. directly. Instead, you use the BDE through the VCL's data access
components, which are found on the Data Access page of

Game Programming Component Palette. To access the particular database the

application only needs to know the Alias for the database and it
Graphics
will have access to all data in that database. The alias is set up
Internet/Intranet in the BDE Administrator and specifies driver parameters and
database locations.
Mathematics The BDE ships with a collection of database drivers, allowing
Multimedia access to a wide variety of data sources. The standard (native)
BDE drivers include Paradox, dBase, MS Access, ASCII text. Of
Delphi Pascal/IDE course, any ODBC driver can also be used by the BDE through
Screen saver dev. the ODBC Administrator.
VCL Using
Delphi applications that use the BDE to access databases require
VCL Write/Enhance that you distribute the BDE with the application. When deploying
the BDE with an application, you must use InstallShield Express
Web Services or another Borland certified installation program.
Windows/Shell/API
The BDE has several advantages as well as disadvantages as a
Kylix (D on Linux)
database engine. It's not my intention to discuss about why and
when you should (or not) use the BDE approach over some non-
Coding standards BDE technique.
Books/Publications
Since this course is about ADO/MSAccess the rest of the course
Dev. Utilities will focus on this non-BDE database approach.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Next page > The ADO > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers More Delphi
Training/CD/Video · Download free source code applications and components.
VCL & Tools
Subject Library TOPIC.
· NEXT ARTICLE: "The Big Brother" Delphi code toolkit.
All articles on this from the TaskBar, disabling shut down, ...
topic
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Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Page 3: The ADO programming model.
Delphi Programming As stated in the Introducing ADO in • Page 1: Delphi database
connectivity
· Free course: Delphi Delphi article, ADO is a set of COM
• Page 2: the BDE
components (DLLs) that allow you to
ADO DB programming • Page 4: Connecting to a
access databases as well as e-mail database
· Delphi for .NET and file systems. Applications built
with ADO components don't require
· Free code APPs & the BDE. Join the Discussion
VCL To access any kind of database with "Post your views and
ADO, you'll of course need to have comments to this chapter of
· A-Z Site Index ADO/OLE DB libraries. Everything you the free Delphi database
Programming Course"
need to use ADO is probably already
Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE on your computer: the files are
distributed by Microsoft as a part of Related Resources
Windows 98/2000. If you or your • free DB Course.TOC
What's New and Hot
client use Windows 95 or Windows NT • Delphi DB articles
Top Picks-Tool/VCL you will probably need to distribute
and install the ADO engine. Delphi 5's Elsewhere on the Web
CD includes an installation of MDAC -
Beginners Here • MS Data Access Page
Microsoft Data Access Components.
• Data access dilemma -
COM/OLE/ActiveX You should always make sure to have
BDE/ADO
the latest version, which is available
Database from Microsoft. The Microsoft Data
Distrubuted comp. Access Components are the key technologies that enable
Universal Data Access. They include ActiveX Data Objects (ADO),
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa022001c.htm (1 of 4) [24.11.2002 16:56:30]

Game Programming OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC).

Note: to install correctly on a Windows 95 computer, MDAC
Graphics requires that DCOM95 be installed. MDAC installs components
Internet/Intranet that rely on DLLs installed by DCOM95 in order to register
correctly. Note that DCOM95 is not required on a Windows NT
Mathematics 4.0. In some cases, DCOM may not be installed on a Windows 98
Multimedia computer. If it has not been installed, then DCOM98 should be
installed prior to the installation of MDAC.
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev. Without to much talking about OLE DB and ADO let's move on to
more practical topics.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance ADO Objects
Web Services The ADO programming model is built around several ADO
objects that provide you with the productive means for accessing
Windows/Shell/API all kinds of data sources. These objects provide the functionality
Kylix (D on Linux) to connect to data sources, query and update record sets, and
report errors. Delphi, through several VCL components provides
wrapper components to access those objects. Let's see what are
Coding standards some of the Objects ADO works with:
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities The Connection object represents a connection to the data
source with the connection strings. In BDE/Delphi a Connection
FAQs/Tips/Tricks object is a combination of the Database and Session
components.
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun The Command object enables us to operate on a data source. Ir
Icons and Glyphs represents a command (also known as a query or statement)
that can be processed to add, delete, query or update the data
Jobs and Offers in a database.
Training/CD/Video
The Recordset object is a result of a Query command. You can
VCL & Tools think of a Recordset as a Delphi Table or Query component. Each
row that the Recordset returns consists of multiple Field objects.
Subject Library
Several other objects like: the Field object, the Parameter Object
and the Error object also exist in ADO model - will get back to
All articles on this them in the following chapters of this course.
topic
Next page > Connecting to a database > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
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ESSENTIALS
Page 4: Connecting to a database with ADOExpress.
Delphi Programming Before going on to the brief explanation of • Page 1: Delphi database
each component in AdoExpress collection, connectivity
· Free course: Delphi • Page 2: the BDE
let's first see how to connect to an Access
ADO DB programming database. Of course, we will be connecting • Page 3: ADO, ADO Objects
to our AboutDelphi.mdb sample database. Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET
· Free code APPs & Delphi (5) ADO support is concentrated in Join the Discussion
VCL the ADOExpress components on the ADO "Post your views and
tab of the component palette. Several other comments to this chapter of
· A-Z Site Index the free Delphi database
database enabled components will be used Programming Course"
through this course. For the moment we Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE will focus on the minimal set of components
needed to access an Access database with Related Resources
What's New and Hot ADO. • free DB Course.TOC
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Start Delphi, this will open a new
application with one blank form. Elsewhere on the Web
Beginners Here • MS Data Access Page
In order to be able to access data in an • UDL Files — Microsoft Data
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Link Files
Access database with ADO and Delphi, you
Database must add at least three data aware
Distrubuted comp. components to our project. First, the DBGrid on the DataControls
component page - used to browse through the records retrieved from
Game Programming a table or by a query. Second, the DataSource (DataAccess Page)
used to provide a link between a dataset and DBGrid component on a
Graphics
form that enable display, navigation, and editing of the data
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa022001d.htm (1 of 4) [24.11.2002 16:56:38]

Internet/Intranet underlying the dataset. And finally the ADOTable (ADO page) that
represents a table retrieved from an ADO data store. Drop all of them
Mathematics on a form. Let the names be the default one. The form should look
Multimedia something like:
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards If you run the application now, nothing is displayed in a Grid - of
course, we did nothing to really connect to a database. Note just one
Books/Publications more thing: only the Grid is displayed, the rest two component are
Dev. Utilities controls - unvisible to the user.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Link between components
Free Code Projects In order to display some data from a database we have to link all
three components together. Using the Object Inspector, set the
Humor and Fun following:
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers DBGrid1.DataSource = DataSource1
DataSource1.DataSet = ADOTable1
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools We have now reached the hard part, to really get the data from our
database we have to build a ConnectionString. This string indicates
where the database is physically stored and how we are accessing it.
Subject Library When you double click the ellipsis button at the ConnectionString
property of the AdoTable component you get the next dialog box:

topic
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When building a connection string we have two choices: use the Data
Link File (.UDL) or build a connection string by hand. Let's build it.

Press the Build button - this pops up the Data Link Properties dialog.
This dialog has 4 pages. The Provider tab allows you to specify the
provider - select the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider. The Next
button leads us to the second page: Connection. Select the ellipsis
button to browse for our database (AboutDelphi.mdb). Press the Test
Connection button to see if the connection is successful - it should be.
Leave all the other pages as they are. Finally, click on OK to close the
Data Link Properties dialog, again OK to close the ConnectionString
dialog - the connection string is stored in the ConnectionString
property of the ADTTable component. The connection string should
look something like:
Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=C:\!gajba\About\aboutdelphi.mdb;
Persist Security Info=False
To finish, we have to set the table name that is to be accessed by the

ADOTable component - again use the Object Inspector.
ADOTable1.TableName = Applications
If you want to see the data at design time use the ADOTable Active
property - set it to True.
Ha! If you have done all the steps you now see the only one record
(row) in the Applications table. When you start the application you can
even change the data in the database. Of course, you cannot do much
more - this is the simplest ADO example I could think of.
This concludes this chapter. In the next chapter we will address all the
ADO component provided with Delphi and how they communicate with
the rest data-aware components to crate a powerfull Delphi database
application.

>> Chapter 3: Pictures inside a database
More Delphi
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Pictures inside a database - DB/3 - Page 1/5
Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Pictures inside a database
Page 1: Working with BLOBs. Storing pictures in Access.
Delphi Programming These days developing database • Page 2: DBImage.NOT
applications requires more than just • Page 3: Streaming JPG
· Free course: Delphi • Page 4: JPG SOI marker
operating with textual or numeric
ADO DB programming data. If you are, for example, • Page 5: Project's Code
developing an Internet/intranet or
· Delphi for .NET multimedia based application,
Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & frequently there is a need to display comments to this chapter of
pictures along with text from a the free Delphi database
VCL
database. Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index Discuss!
In this third chapter of the Delphi Related Resources

BUYER'S GUIDE database course, we'll see how to pull
out and display the graphical data • Delphi DB articles
(images) inside an Access database
What's New and Hot
with ADO. Don't be worried with the
Top Picks-Tool/VCL fact that working with images inside
an Access database requires more • BMP in Access/ADO
database programming skills than this
Beginners Here
course has provided so far. Let's
COM/OLE/ActiveX pretend that we know more to get more.
Database
If you have followed this course from the beginning (specially
Distrubuted comp. the second chapter), you know how to connect to a database
and display the Applications (from our working aboutdelphi.mdb

Game Programming database) table in a DBGrid. Remember, we used 3 data

components: DBGrid, ADOTable and DataSource to get and
Graphics display the data from the Applications table.
Internet/Intranet Back in the first chapter when we created our database, the last
filed in the Applications table was left blank (after filling our
Mathematics database with some dummy data). The last field has the name
Multimedia Picture and is of the OLE object type.
Delphi Pascal/IDE
If you scroll right to the last column of the DBGrid you'll see
Screen saver dev. something like:
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
When using MS Access, we can store images (and other large
FAQs/Tips/Tricks data objects such as sound or video) in a field that has the OLE
Free Code Projects object type. This type of data is referred to as a Binary Large
Object Bitmap (BLOB).
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs Naturally when working with images, several types of picture
formats are available. The most commonly used include JPEG,
Jobs and Offers
GIF and BMP. JPEG format has proven to be widely accepted by
Training/CD/Video Web masters because of the small amount of storage required
(in other words JPEGs are smaller than BMPs in bytes).
VCL & Tools
Delphi, of course, has means of handling BMP, GIF and JPEG
Subject Library graphic formats. The rest of this article will deal with JPEG file
formats.
All articles on this Storing pictures in Access

topic Before going on to discussion about displaying the image inside
a table within a Delphi form, we need to add some graphical
data to our database.
Start Access and open the aboutdelphi.mdb database. Open the

Applications table (it should have one row of data) and select the
Picture field.

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To add an image do the following:
> Free Psychics
1. Select Insert|Object... this will display the Insert Object dialog

box.
2. Click on the Browse button, this pops up the Browse open

dialog. Note: you probably have some .jpg files on your
computer, so you could use those, or if you have Win 98 and
newer, MS Paint will save pictures in this format, as will many
other programs. Navigate to a directory where your pictures are
stored and select one.
Note: the text in the Picture field holds the name of an

executable used to work with JPEG files on your computer. Of
course you don't see the picture in a table grid. To actually see
the graphics double click that field. This will load the image
within the JPG type associated application.
Now, when we have a picture inside a database, let's see how to

display it inside a Delphi form. We already have a Delphi form
with data components on it from the second chapter of this
course.
Next page > Pulling the Jpeg with DBImage - the wrong way >
Page 1, 2, 3, 3, 5

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ESSENTIALS
Page 2: Pulling the Jpeg with DBImage - the wrong way.
Delphi Programming The DBImage - take one • Page 1: BLOBs in Access
The first thing I do when trying to do • Page 3: Streaming JPG
something new with Delphi is to "ask"
ADO DB programming Delphi Help for help. This is what the • Page 5: Project's Code
Help system replies: TDBImage (Data
· Delphi for .NET Controls page on the component
Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & palette) represents a graphic image comments to this chapter of
from a BLOB (binary large object) the free Delphi database
VCL
field of the current record of a Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index dataset. Use TDBImage to represent Discuss!
the value of graphic fields. TDBImage
Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE allows a form to display graphical
data from a dataset. The DBImage is • free DB Course.TOC
nothing more than a TImage • Delphi DB articles
What's New and Hot component with some data aware
Top Picks-Tool/VCL properties. The two most important
ones are: DataSource and Field. The DataSource property links
the image component to a dataset. We have a DataSoure
Beginners Here component named DataSource1 on our form that represent a
COM/OLE/ActiveX dataset. The Field property indicates the field (in a table) that
holds the image.
Database
Distrubuted comp. All clear, put a DBImage on form and leave the DBImage1
name. To actually link a DBImage with a BLOB field in a Table

Game Programming we simply need to do the following assignment (using the Object
Inspector):
Graphics
Internet/Intranet DBImage1.DataSource = DataSource1
DBImage1.Field = Picture
Mathematics
Multimedia This should do the trick of displaying the JPEG image stored in
Delphi Pascal/IDE the Picture field of the Applications table.
Screen saver dev.

To see whether this assignment will work the only thing we have
VCL Using to do is to set the Active property of the ADOTable1 component
to True. We can do this at design time with the Object Inspector.
VCL Write/Enhance Once you set it you'll get the following:
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Now what? Why does it say "Bitmap image is not valid." We
Free Code Projects have a JPEG picture not the BMP - is this the problem? Let's go
Humor and Fun back to the Help.
Icons and Glyphs After a few clicks through the Help the conclusion is: to get the
Jobs and Offers JPG inside a database we need to use the TJpegImage object. To
display the picture we need the simple, non-data aware, version
Training/CD/Video of the Image component. Even more we'll need to use streams
VCL & Tools to load a picture from a BLOB object. The Help states that we
should use TADOBlobStream to access or modify the value of a
BLOB or memo field in an ADO dataset.
Subject Library
Next page > Streaming the Jpeg - the wrong way > Page 1, 2,
3, 4, 5
topic All graphics (if any) in this feature created by Zarko Gajic.
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ESSENTIALS
Page 3: Streaming the Jpeg - the wrong way.
Delphi Programming Pulling the Jpeg - take two! • Page 1: BLOBs in Access
Since we can do nothing with the DBImage - • Page 2: DBImage.NOT
remove it from the form and place an ordinary
ADO DB programming TImage component (Additional palette) on it. • Page 5: Project's Code
Name it ADOImage. Unfortunately the Image
· Delphi for .NET component does not have any data-aware
Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & properties, so all the code needed to show a comments to this chapter of
picture from a table inside it will require a the free Delphi database
VCL
separate procedure. The easiest thing to do is Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index to put a Button on a form and place all the Discuss!
code inside it's OnClick event. Name the
Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE button 'btnShowImage'.
To use the ADOBLOBStream the Help suggests
What's New and Hot
to create an instance of TADOBlobStream, use
Top Picks-Tool/VCL the methods of the stream to read from a
graphic field in a dataset, and then free the BLOB stream. Somewhere
"in the middle" we'll need to use LoadFromStream to load a Jpeg image
Beginners Here
from a TADOBlobStream object. The Image's component Picture.Graphic
COM/OLE/ActiveX property will be used to actually store and display the picture.
Database
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet

Mathematics Field object, what are those?

At this moment I'll assume that only a small amount of knowledge on Field objects will be enough
Multimedia for you to keep with this chapter. In Delphi database development one of the primary objects is the
TField object. Field components are non-visual objects that represent fields of the dataset at run
Delphi Pascal/IDE (and design) time. The TADOTable (and other TDataSet descendant) gives access to the Fields
Editor at design time. The Fields Editor enables you to select the fields that you want to include in
Screen saver dev. the dataset. More important, it creates a persistent lists of the field components used by the dataset
in your application. To invoke the Fields Editor double click the TADOTable component. By
VCL Using default, the list of fields is empty. Click Add to open a dialog box listing the fields in the
VCL Write/Enhance Applications table. By default, all fields are selected. Select OK.
When Delphi gives (default) names to Fields the following notation is used: Table name + Field
Web Services name. This means that our picture field has the name: ADOTable1Picture.
Windows/Shell/API
The TADOBlobStream Create method creates an instance of
Kylix (D on Linux)
TADOBlobStream for reading from or writing to a specific BLOB field
object, which is in our case the ADOTable1Picture field.
Coding standards
Books/Publications We will place the code in the OnClick event for a btnShowImage button.
The code should read the picture from the Picture field of the currently
Dev. Utilities selected row. This is how the code should look like:
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
uses jpeg;
Humor and Fun
...
Icons and Glyphs procedure TForm1.btnShowImageClick(Sender: TObject);
Jobs and Offers var
bS : TADOBlobStream;
Training/CD/Video Pic : TJpegImage;
VCL & Tools begin
bS := TADOBlobStream.Create
(AdoTable1Picture, bmRead);
Subject Library
try
Pic:=TJpegImage.Create;
All articles on this try
topic Pic.LoadFromStream(bS);
ADOImage.Picture.Graphic:=Pic;
finally
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Pic.Free;
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newsletter. end;
finally
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bS.Free
end;
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> Free Psychics
Ok, let's run the project now. Of course set the ADOTable1.Active
property to True. The form is displayed and after clicking on a button this
is what we got:

Hm, what now? The code in the procedure is 100% correct but the image
doesn't get displayed! Remember the "Never give up, never surrender"?
Let's go down to byte level to see what's happening!
Next page > Seeking the start of Jpeg in the BLOB - the correct way >
Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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About Delphi Programming
Delphi Programming

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Subjects In The Spotlight

Sun, Nov 24, 2002
ESSENTIALS
A Book, a Book, a Kingdom for a Book!
· A Beginner’s Guide to Find what are the best Delphi books on the market and read expert
reviews. Also, see what are the top picks in the .NET arena!
Delphi Programming Top Picks: Tool/VCL - find the best Delphi related tools/VCLs?
· Free course: Delphi Top Picks: Delphi Tips - learn - a lot by grabbing small peaces of code!
ADO DB programming
Accessing INI files with Delphi
· Delphi for .NET How a simple text file can beat Registry in storing a few pieces of
application specific configuration data. The TIniFile class explained!
· Free code APPs &
More: Working w. Registry - basic facts and important tips.
VCL More: Text file IO - handling text, typed and untyped files
· A-Z Site Index
Top Delphi IDE Add-In
BUYER'S GUIDE Take a look at a collection of the best Delphi add-in packages on the
market. Add more functionality to Delphi IDE, make your job easier.
More: Delphi dot Net - articles and announcements
What's New and Hot
Special: News inside the IDE - with our Free Add-On
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Database
Distrubuted comp.
http://delphi.about.com/?once=true& (1 of 3) [24.11.2002 16:57:32]

Game Programming Did You Know?

Graphics You can have the About Delphi Programming *What's New
Internet/Intranet and Hot* section embedded right into your HTML pages or
Mathematics
even Delphi IDE! There's no updates to do, and you can
be guaranteed that it will always be up-to-date with our
Multimedia
latest content. NEW and HOT sticker / IDE Add-in
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic

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Pictures inside a database - code
{
Article: Pictures inside a database
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa030601a.htm
Chapter three of the free

Delphi Database Course for beginners.
Displaying images (BMP, JPEG, ...) inside
an Access database with ADO and Delphi.
For the .zip file of this project click here.
unit Unit1;
interface
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms, Dialogs,
Buttons, ExtCtrls, StdCtrls, Db, ADODB, Grids, DBCtrls, DBGrids;
type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
ADOTable1: TADOTable;
DataSource1: TDataSource;
btnShowImage: TButton;
ADOImage: TImage;
ADOTable1Name: TWideStringField;
ADOTable1Description: TWideStringField;
ADOTable1Author: TWideStringField;
ADOTable1Type: TWideStringField;
ADOTable1Size: TFloatField;
ADOTable1Cost: TBCDField;
ADOTable1DateUpl: TDateTimeField;
ADOTable1Picture: TBlobField;
DBGrid1: TDBGrid;
procedure btnShowImageClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
public
{ Public declarations }
end;
http://delphi.about.com/library/code/ncaa030601a.htm (1 of 4) [24.11.2002 16:58:15]

const
JPEGstarts = 'FFD8';
BMPstarts = '424D'; //BM
var
Form1: TForm1;
implementation
uses jpeg;
{$R *.DFM}
function JpegStartsInBlob (PicField:TBlobField):integer;

var
buffer : Word;
hx : string;
begin
Result := -1;
bS := TADOBlobStream.Create(PicField, bmRead);
try
while (Result = -1) and (bS.Position + 1 < bS.Size) do
begin
bS.ReadBuffer(buffer, 1);
hx:=IntToHex(buffer, 2);
if hx = 'FF' then begin
if hx = 'D8' then Result := bS.Position - 2
else if hx = 'FF' then bS.Position := bS.Position-1;
end; //if
end; //while
finally
bS.Free
end; //try
end;
procedure TForm1.btnShowImageClick(Sender: TObject);

var
Pic : TJpegImage;
begin
bS := TADOBlobStream.Create(AdoTable1Picture, bmRead);
try
bS.Seek(JpegStartsInBlob(AdoTable1Picture), soFromBeginning);
try
Pic.LoadFromStream(bS);
finally
Pic.Free;

end;
finally
bS.Free
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);

var sDBPath, sCons: string;
begin
//change the sDBPath to point to your database!
sDBPath := 'c:\!Gajba\About\aboutdelphi.mdb';
sCons := 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=' + sDBPath + ';Persist
Security Info=False';
ADOTable1.ConnectionString := sCons;
ADOTable1.TableName := 'Applications';
DataSource1.DataSet := ADOTable1;
DBGrid1.DataSource := DataSource1;
ADOTable1.Active:=True;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);

begin
ADOTable1.Active:=False;
end;
//Extra!! save JPG to table

procedure SaveJpegToTable(Table: TADOTable; PicField:TBlobField; sPicPath: string);
{
Usage:
SPicFileName := 'C:\!gajba\cdcovers\cdcover1.jpg';
SaveJpegToTable(ADOTable1, ADOTable1Picture, SPicFileName);
}
var
fS : TFileStream;
begin
fs:=TFileStream.Create(sPicPath, fmOpenRead);
try
Table.Edit;
PicField.LoadFromStream(fs);
Table.Post;
finally
fs.Free;
end;
end;
end.

{
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Data browsing and navigation - DB/4 - Page 1/2
Delphi Programming

Spiegel, and more!
ESSENTIALS
Data browsing and navigation
Page 1: Set and Connect
Delphi Programming Welcome to the fourth chapter of a • Page 2: Browse and
free DB Delphi Course! So far, this navigate
· Free course: Delphi
course has provided enough
Join the Discussion
ADO DB programming information to connect to an Access
· Delphi for .NET database and even to display a comments to this chapter of
graphical data inside a database the free Delphi database
· Free code APPs & table. In the last chapter we were Programming Course"
Discuss!
VCL discussing some *advanced*
database programming techniques - Related Resources
· A-Z Site Index let's go back to more *for beginners* • free DB Course.TOC
level now. • Coloring DBGrid
BUYER'S GUIDE
• Database Form Wizard
This time, you will see how to build a • Selecting Fields.howto
What's New and Hot form (the real one) that can be used
to browse through the records of a
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
database table.
All the examples presented in the previous chapters have used
Beginners Here several data-enabled (ADOTable, DBGrid, ...) components
without to much explaining what each component is designed
COM/OLE/ActiveX
for, and how all those data components link together.
Database
Distrubuted comp. Working together...
When developing ADO-based Delphi database applications, the

Game Programming components on the Data Controls page, the ADO page, and the
Data Access page of the component palette allow our application
Graphics to read from and write information to databases.
Internet/Intranet
Every (ADO) data-aware Delphi form, in general, consist of
Mathematics
· several data-aware controls (Data Controls tab) that create a
Multimedia visual user interface (the look of the data form).
· one DataSource component (Data Access tab) that represents
Delphi Pascal/IDE
an interface between a dataset component and data-aware
Screen saver dev. controls on a form.
· one or more dataset components (ADO tab) that provide
VCL Using access to the data residing in a database table or query.
VCL Write/Enhance · a connection component (ADO tab) that points all the dataset
components to a specific data store.
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API Data Controls
Delphi's data-aware components are components that normally
Kylix (D on Linux) reside on a Standard palette tab but have been modified to
display and manipulate the content of data in a dataset (table or
Coding standards query). The choice of controls is determined by how we want to
present the information and how we want to let users browse
Books/Publications
(and manipulate - add or edit) through the records of datasets.
Dev. Utilities DBEdit and DBMemo, for example, are used to represent an
individual record from a dataset. The DBGrid, on the other hand,
FAQs/Tips/Tricks is generally used when representing the contents of an entire
Free Code Projects dataset. Since all the data-aware controls are counterparts to
the standard Windows controls - with a few extra properties,
Humor and Fun building a functional database application should be a relatively
Icons and Glyphs familiar task.
All the data-aware components share one common property:
Jobs and Offers Data Source.
Training/CD/Video
Data Source
VCL & Tools Simply put, the DataSource component provides a mechanism to
hook dataset components to the visual data-aware components
that display the data. You generally will need one datasource
Subject Library component for each dataset component to present a link to one
or more data-aware controls.
Datasets
topic To create an ADO based application, Delphi provides us with four
dataset components: TAdoDataSet, TAdoTable, TAdoQuery and
TAdoStoredProc. All of the components are designed to retrieve,
present and modify the data. All those components can connect
directly (as like in the previous chapter's examples) to an ADO
data store (such as data in an Access database) through it's
ConnectionString property or they can chare a single connection.
When connecting through a TAdoConnection the Connection
specifies an ADO connection object to use to connect to an ADO

Stay up-to-date! data store.

Subscribe to our
newsletter. ADO Connection
Enter Email Go! The ADOConnection component is used to establish a connection
with an ADO data store. Although each ADO dataset component
Advertising can directly connect to a database, we will typically want to use
> Free Credit Report the ADOConnection component since the component provides
methods and properties for activating the connection, accessing
> Free Psychics
the ADO data store directly and for working with transactions. In
order to connect to a specific database, we use the
ConnectionString property.
Now, when we know the theory it's time to see some action. The
next step is to build a data form. Before we move on, it'll be a
good idea to open the database with Access and add some
"dummy" data (3-4 records) to a database just to have some
operational data.
Next page > Browse and navigate > Page 2
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Data browsing and navigation
Page 2: Browse and navigate
Delphi Programming There are two different ways of • Page 1: Set - Connect
· Free course: Delphi creating forms with access to a data

Printer friendly version
from a database. The first way is to
ADO DB programming use the Database Form Expert. Join the Discussion
· Delphi for .NET Unfortunately, the Database Form "Post your views and
Expert works only with the BDE- comments to this chapter of
· Free code APPs & aware set of dataset components. The the free Delphi database
second way is to place and connect all Programming Course"
VCL Discuss!
the data components by hand.
· A-Z Site Index Related Resources
Defining the User Interface • free DB Course.TOC
BUYER'S GUIDE We'll build our data browsing form in • Coloring DBGrid
three steps. First step is to define the • Database Form Wizard
What's New and Hot user interface for the form. Next, the • Selecting Fields.howto
data access components are added
Top Picks-Tool/VCL and configured. In the third and final
step, the data-aware controls are
Beginners Here added.
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Before you start, close any open projects. Then use the following
Database steps:
Distrubuted comp.
● Select File|New Application. This creates a new project

Game Programming containing an empty form, a unit, and a project file.

● Add one one PageControl on the form. The PageControl can be
Graphics found on the Win32 tab on the component palette. Let it have
Internet/Intranet the default name, PageControl.
● Add two TabSheets on the PageControl (right-click on a
Mathematics PageControl and select "New Page"). Set the Caption of the first
Multimedia TabSheet1 to "Browse". Set the Caption of the second
TabSheet1 to "Edit".
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev. ● Place a DataSource (DataAccess tab), an ADOTable and an
ADOConnection (ADO tab) component on the form. Leave all the
VCL Using components with their default names.
● Select the first page of the PageControl and place a DBGrid
VCL Write/Enhance
(Data Controls tab) component on the Browse tabsheet.
Web Services ● place a DBNavigator component (Data Controls tab). The
Windows/Shell/API navigator buttons are used to move through the records in a

table.
Kylix (D on Linux) ● By using the Object Inspector set the link between
components like:
Coding standards
DBNavigator1.DataSource = DataSource1
Books/Publications DBGrid1.DataSource = DataSource1
Dev. Utilities DataSource1.DataSet = ADOTable1
ADOTable1.Connection = ADOConnection1
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ADOConnection1.ConnectionString = ...
Free Code Projects ADOConnection1.LoginPrompt = False
ADOTable1.Table = 'Applications'
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs Note: as discussed in the second chapter, the ConnectionString
property indicates where the data is physically stored and how
Jobs and Offers
we are accessing it. You can use the same connection string as
Training/CD/Video in the second chapter, or you can build one by invoking the
connection string editor.
VCL & Tools Setting the LoginPrompt property of the ADOConnection
component to False suppresses the database login from showing.
Since we have not set any password for our database we don't
Subject Library need the login prompt.

topic

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Fields
The DBGrid component is generally used when we want to
present the entire recordset to the user (data in a table). Even
though we can use the DBGird to let the user add, edit and
delete records in a table - better approach is to use Field objects
for all the fields in a table. Field objects are mostly used to
control the display and editing of data in your applications. By
using the Fields Editor we can set the list of persistent field
object for every column in a table. The Field Editor is invoked by
double clicking the DataSet component (ADOTable1). To add
fields to the list of persistent fields for a dataset right-click the
list and choose Add Fields.
Rather than presenting all the data in a table to the user (within
the DBGrid), we might want to use field-oriented data aware
components, such as edit boxes. The DBEdit component for
example, is a data-aware version of the TEdit class. DBEdit is the
building block of any data entry application.
The easiest way to place a DBEdit on the form and connect it

with a field in a table is to use the following:
1. Invoke the Fields editor by double clicking on the ADOTable

component.
2. Select the Name field, for example. Let the second tab of the
Page control be the selected one.
3. Drag the Name field on the form.

When you drop the Name field on the tabsheet, Delphi places
one Label and one DBEdit component on it. The Caption of the
Label component is the same as the DisplayLabel property of the
dragged field. The DBEdit component is linked to the dataset's
datasource through it's DataSource property.
If you select more than one filed from the Fields Editor and drag
it on the form, Delphi will set as much Label/DBEdit components
as you have dropped on the form.
It's alive
Ok, all set up. Everything we have to do now is to activate the
connection and scroll through the records. The Active property of
a dataset component (ADOTable) indicates whether we have a
live connection to a table or not. Setting the Active to True or
calling the Open method sets the Connected property of the
ADOConnection to True - and displays the data in related data-
aware controls.
First, Move by, Last,...

Now, we are finally ready for some action. The next step is to
see how to walk through the recordset.
The DBNavigator component gives a simple and friendly tool for

navigating through the recordset. In addition to it's navigational

abilities, the DBNavigator provides a means for manipulating the
data with actions like Insert, Delete or Cancel the changes. For
example, if the we click the Delete button, the correct record is
deleted from the recordset. Each button is optional and you can
mix and match at will.
Using the button set we are able to skip to the last record or
move to the previous one. For example, clicking on the Last
button sets the current record to the last record in the recordset
and disables the Last and Next buttons. Clicking the Last button
is functionally the same as calling the Last method of a dataset.
Note that one of the navigational operations that the
DBNavigator cannot process is moving forward or backward in a
recordset by a number or records. The MoveBy method of a
dataset is used to position the cursor on a record relative to the
active record in the recordset.
That's it for this chapter. We are now ready to move on to topics

like editing and searching the recordset, expect to learn about
that in the following chapters of this course...
First page > Set and Connect > Page 1

>> Chapter 5: Behind data in datasets
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Behind data in datasets - DB/5 - Page 1/2
Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Behind data in datasets
Page 1: The State of Data
· A Beginner’s Guide to
Delphi Programming More of this Feature
When developing database • Page 2: From BOF to EOF
applications with Delphi and ADO,
Join the Discussion
ADO DB programming most of the work is done with the
"Post your views and comments
· Delphi for .NET help of dataset components. To
to this chapter of the free Delphi
create an ADO based application, database Programming Course"
· Free code APPs & Delphi provides us with several Discuss!
dataset components. TAdoTable,
VCL
TAdoQuery and others are all Related Resources
· A-Z Site Index designed to retrieve, present and • free DB Course.TOC
modify the data inside a database • Database tutorials
BUYER'S GUIDE table or query. • Selecting Fields.howto
In this fifth chapter of the free
database course we'll see exactly
What's New and Hot how to present, navigate and read the data - by looking at some
Top Picks-Tool/VCL of the most interesting datasets properties, events and methods.
Beginners Here Pick, set, connect and get

Since this is the fifth chapter, you should be familiar with the
COM/OLE/ActiveX steps needed to create a database form. Back in the fourth
Database chapter we have created, by hand, a simple data browsing form.
The same form can be used to follow the discussion in this
Distrubuted comp. chapter.

Game Programming The only (ADO) dataset component we used, by now, was
TAdoTable. It's important to know that both TADOQuery and
Graphics
TADODatSet (as dataset components) share the same set of
Internet/Intranet common methods and events.
Mathematics
Open Sesame ; Close Sesame
Multimedia One of the great features of Delphi database development is that
Delphi Pascal/IDE Delphi enables us to work directly with the data while in design-
mode. If you recall - in the previous chapters we used the Active
Screen saver dev. property at design time to open the live connection with the
data.
VCL Using
It's understandable, that prior to working with the data in a
VCL Write/Enhance table, an application must first open a dataset. Delphi has two
methods of performing this function. As we already saw, the
Web Services Active property can be set to True at design or run time. We can
Windows/Shell/API also call the Open method at run time. For example, add the
following code to the form's OnCreate event handler to get the
Kylix (D on Linux) data from the ADOTable1 component:
Coding standards ADOTable1.Open;

Books/Publications
Note: Every ADO dataset can acess data in a database through its own
Dev. Utilities ConnectionString property or through an ADOConnection component (and it's
ConnectionString). If the ADOTable1 component is connected to
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ADOConnection1 component (preferable) than opening the ADOTable will
result in activating the corresponding ADOConection component. The
Free Code Projects
ADOConnection provides two events that will be executed: OnWillConnect and
Humor and Fun OnConnectComplete.
Icons and Glyphs

The Open method sets the Active property to True and activates
Jobs and Offers the connection. When we are done with using the connection we
can close it by setting the Active property to False or by calling
Training/CD/Video
the Close method. Generally you will place the call to Close in
VCL & Tools the form's OnClose event handler:
ADOTable1.Close;
Subject Library
Before moving on, it's crucial to know that working with
All articles on this dataset's methods and properties relies on knowing the current
state of the data. Simply put, the State property of a dataset
topic determines what actions can and cannot occur at any moment
on a dataset.
How are you doing?

If the dataset is closed the State of the data indicates an
Inactive connection. No operations or actions or methods can be
done on the data while the connection is closed. The first time
we open the connection the dataset is placed in the default
Browse state. You should always be aware of the state "your"

Stay up-to-date! data is in. For example, when we connect a dataset to a DBGrid,
Subscribe to our the user is able to see the underlying dataset (or recordset), but
newsletter. to be able to change some of the data the State must be
Enter Email Go! changed to Edit.
Advertising It's important to know that the dataset state constantly changes
> Free Credit Report as an application processes data. If, for example, while browsing
the data in a DBGrid (Browse state) the user starts editing the
> Free Psychics
records the state will automatically change to Edit. Of course,
this is the default behaviour of the data-aware controls (DBGrid,
DBEdit) with their AutoEdit property set to True.
But, how do we get the state? The ADOTable (nor any other
dataset component) doesn't have an event that triggers when
the State changes.
Ok, let's see: for each dataset component we generally use one
datasource component to present a link to one or more data-
aware controls. That's it.
Every datasource component has an OnStateChange event that

fires whenever the state of the underlying dataset changes.
Placing the following code for the OnStateChange event handler
causes the caption of the form to indicate the current state of
the ADOTable1 dataset component:
procedure TForm1.DataSource1StateChange
(Sender: TObject);
var ds: string;
begin
case ADOTable1.State of
dsInactive: ds:='Closed';
dsBrowse : ds:='Browsing';
dsEdit : ds:='Editing';
dsInsert : ds:='New record inserting';
else
ds:='Other states'
end;
Caption:='ADOTable1 state: ' + ds;
end;
Next page > From BOF to EOF > Page 1, 2

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ESSENTIALS
Behind data in datasets
Page 2: From BOF to EOF and back in the Middle
In the last chapter we used the • Page 1: The State of Data
DBNavigator component to navigate Printer friendly version
ADO DB programming through the dataset. This
· Delphi for .NET component presents a visual tool for Join the Discussion
navigating through a dataset. As "Post your views and comments
· Free code APPs & stated, the DBNavigator has buttons to this chapter of the free Delphi
VCL that the user can click to move database Programming Course"
among dataset's records at run- Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index time.
Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE • free DB Course.TOC
Moving on from BOF to EOF • Database tutorials
To iterate through a recordset and • Selecting Fields.howto
What's New and Hot to sum some values we'll need to
use methods of a dataset
Top Picks-Tool/VCL component. Take a look at the following code:
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Database
Distrubuted comp.

Game Programming ...

Graphics ADOTable1.DisableControls;
Internet/Intranet
try
ADOTable1.First;
Mathematics while not ADOTable1.EOF do begin;
Multimedia Do_Summing_Calculation;
Delphi Pascal/IDE
ADOTable1.Next;
end;
Screen saver dev. finally
VCL Using ADOTable1.EnableControls;
end;
VCL Write/Enhance
...
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux) The First method is used to set the current row in the dataset to
the first one; the Next moves to the next row in a dataset. The
Coding standards EOF (and BOF) property indicates whether the dataset is at the
last (first) row.
Books/Publications In most cases, the dataset is connected to one or more data-
aware controls. When long iterations take place it's quite
Dev. Utilities
interesting to "disconnect" those data-aware controls from the
FAQs/Tips/Tricks dataset - to prevent data-aware controls from updating every
time the active record changes. The DisableControls and
Free Code Projects
EnableControls are used to disable or enable data display in
Humor and Fun controls associated with the dataset.
The error catching (try-finally) part simply ensures that all data-
Icons and Glyphs
aware controls remain connected to the dataset if some
Jobs and Offers exception occurs.
The Do_Summing_Calculation should obviously sum values
Training/CD/Video represented by fields in a dataset.
VCL & Tools
Bookmarking
Prior to calling the above code the dataset was probably at some
Subject Library *middle* position - the user was browsing a dataset with a
DBGrid. The code moves the *current* row to the end (EOF)
causing the program to loose the previous position. It would be
All articles on this much better (and user friendly) if we could store the current
topic position and make it the current one (again) when the iteration
completes. Of course, Delphi has that option. The Bookmark
property of the ADOTable (and any other TDataset decedent)
can be used to store and set the current record's position.
Bookmarks are used like:

Stay up-to-date! var Bok : TBookmarkStr

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newsletter.
...
Bok := ADOTable1.Bookmark;
Enter Email Go!
{iteration code}
ADOTable1.Bookmark := Bok;
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The value of data
In the previous code the Do_Summing_Calculation part was left.
Most likely that part should get the value of some field (column)
in a dataset and sum it.
When we talk about record values in datasets we talk about
values of data fields. As we have seen in the previous chapters
the fields of a dataset are represented with unvisible Field
components. In the examples from previous chapters we used
the Object Inspector to set up a list of persistent fields for a
dataset.
When data-aware controls are connected to a dataset and the

user moves through a recordset the corresponding field values
are presented in those controls. When we want to use the same
values directly in code we need to know how to read them.
By default, when Delphi gives names to field objects the
following notation is used: Table name + Field name. This means
that if we have the Type field in table the filed object connected
to that, hm, field will have the name: ADOTable1Type.
To access the data value from a field we can use several

notations.
ADOTable1Type.Value
ADOTable1.Fields[x].Value
ADOTable1.FieldByName('Type').Value
Note: All fields of a dataset are stored in the Fields array. x represents the
position of the field in the fields array.
The Value property for a field object holds the data value. Since
Value is a varian type it's preferable to cast fields value to a type
that we currently need. In other words an application should use
the AsString property to convert a value (date, integer,
currency, ...) in a field to a string when the string representation
of the fields value is needed.
Now we can write the entire code to iterate through a recordset

and count how many 'database' applications are in a table (of
course we are talking about Applications table in our

AboutDelphi.mdb Access database).
var Bok : TBookmarkStr

ict : Integer;
begin
ict:=0;
Bok:=ADOTable1.Bookmark;
try
ADOTable1.DisableControls;
try
ADOTable1.First;
while not ADOTable1.EOF do begin;
if ADOTable1.FieldByName('Type').AsString
= 'database' then Inc(ict);
ADOTable1.Next;
end;
finally
ADOTable1.EnableControls;
end;
finally
ADOTable1.Bookmark:=Bok;
end;
ShowMessage('Number of database
apps: ' + IntToStr(ict));
end;
I agree with you! We should use ADOQuery for such purposes!
That's it for the fifth chapter. Next time we'll see how to add,
delete and insert recordset to a database table.
First page > The State of data > Page 1, 2

>> Chapter 6: Data modification
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Data modifications - DB/6
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hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
Data modifications
Chapter six of the free Delphi Database Course for beginners.
· A Beginner’s Guide to Learn how to add, insert and delete records from a database
Delphi Programming table.

ADO DB programming More of this Feature
The main goal of developing database Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET
applications is to provide a means of
· Free code APPs & modifying the data. In the first five Join the Discussion
chapters this DB Course has shown how "Post your views and comments
VCL to this chapter of the free Delphi
to connect to an Access database, how to database Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index display the data from a database table Discuss!
and how to navigate through the records
BUYER'S GUIDE in a table. Related Resources
• more Database articles
What's New and Hot In this sixth chapter of the free database
course we'll see exactly how to add, edit
Top Picks-Tool/VCL and delete the data - by looking at some
of the most interesting properties, events and methods of the db-
Beginners Here aware/enabled components and objects.
COM/OLE/ActiveX
To follow this article you'll need to create a data form similar to ones
Database we were creating in the previous chapters. Use the standard set
(DataSource, ADOTable and ADOConnection) of components to
Distrubuted comp.
connect to our Access database. This time we will be exploring the
Game Programming Authors table. Recall that the Authors table has three fields (columns):
AuthorName, Email and Web. All three are text fields, in the first
Graphics chapter we added one "dummy" record.

Internet/Intranet
Mathematics
Multimedia
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Start a new Delphi project and on the default new form place all the
Windows/Shell/API data access components and a DBGrid and a DBNavigator. Use the
Kylix (D on Linux) Object Inspector to set the link between all those components. Set the
Table name of the ADOTable1 component to point to the Authors
table. You should already be familiar with the steps to achieve the
Coding standards connection. Use the Active property of the ADOTable to activate the
Books/Publications connection at design time. Or use the OnCreate/OnClose pair of event
handlers for the form to Open and Close the dataset at run-time.
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks One of the great advantages of database development with Delphi is
in the existance of the TField object. As already stated, in the previous
Free Code Projects chapters, database fields can be persistent or created dynamically. It
Humor and Fun is recommended to set the persistent list of fields for a (known)
dataset. By using the Object Inspector add all three fields to the list.
Icons and Glyphs Use dragging and dropping (as explained in the 5th chapter) to link a
Jobs and Offers data-aware DBEdits to fields in a database table.
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our
newsletter.
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When linking components in a way that the DBNavigator is used with
Advertising the data-aware components like the DBGrid operations like editing,
> Free Credit Report deleting and inserting new records to a table are done semi-
automatically. For example, suppose you are browsing the recordset
> Free Psychics
with the DBGrid. When you start retyping the text in some cell (editing
the value of the underlying field) the data is not modified until the
Post method is called. The Post method (of a dataset) plays the
central role in a Delphi database application.

When the dataset is in the Edit state, a call to Post modifies the
current record. The DBNavigator has the Post button (the one with the
check mark on it) that calls the Post method when clicked. You should
be aware of the fact that Post is called implicitly (for example) when
you move to the next record - just by pressing the down key while
editing in a DBGrid.
When an application calls the Post method (implicitly or explicitly)

several events happen that can be handeled by Delphi. For example
the BeforePost event (of a dataset) is triggered before the "modified"
record is actually modified and updated with the new values. Your
application might use the OnBeforePost to perform validity checks on
data changes before posting them to the database. This is a place
where so-called record-based validation should be done. Record-based
validation is used when other fields are involved in determining if a
value entered for a field is valid. To check for the validity of one field
at a time you could use the OnValidate event handler for that specific
field. The OnValidate event handler is created from the Object
Inspector when the Fields editor is invoked and the appropriate field is
selected.
Editing a record
To be able to edit the data returned by a dataset the dataset must be
in the Edit state. The default behaviour of the data-aware controls
(DBGrid, DBEdit) with their AutoEdit property set to True is that once
the user starts editing the values in DBEdit controls the state changes
(from Browse) to Edit. No error occurs if we try to put a dataset in the
Edit state while the dataset is already in the Edit state.
Programmatically editing and posting could look like:
ADOTable1.Edit;
ADOTable1AuthorName.AsString := 'Delphi Guide';
ADOTable1.Post;
The first line simply puts the dataset in the Edit state. The last one
Posts the data to the database. The second one assigns the string
value 'Delphi Guide' to the AuthorName field.
Take a look at (some of the) events that were triggered by the

previous (simple) call.
ADOTable1BeforeEdit
DataSource1StateChange
DataSource1DataChange
ADOTable1AfterEdit
ADOTable1AuthorNameValidate
ADOTable1AuthorNameChange
DataSource1DataChange

ADOTable1BeforePost
ADOTable1AfterPost
Note: the DBGrid and the appropriate DBEdit component are refreshed
to show the new value for the AuthorName field.
Adding a new record

The simplest way to add a new record to a table is to click on the
DBNavigators Insert button (the one with the plus sign on it). The
Insert method called adds/opens a new - empty record in a table. The
DBGrid display one empty row with the asterisk sign in the first
column. All three DBEdit components are empty and ready for the
user to enter values for the new record.
The call to Insert results in calling series related events, too.
Programmatically inserting and posting could look like:
with ADOTable1 do begin

Insert;
FieldByName('AuthorName').Value := 'Zarko Gajic';
FieldByName('Email').Value := 'gzarko@sf.hr';
FieldByName('Web').Value := 'http://sf.hr';
Post;
end;
Note: the ADOTable component has the InsertRecord method that can
be used to create a new, empty record at in the dataset, fill fields with
values, and post the values to the database - all that with just one line
of code. The previous example could look like:
ADOTable1.InsertRecord('Zarko Gajic',
'gzarko@sf.hr',
'http://sf.hr')
"Undo" changes
While in the Edit (the user is changing the data) or in the Insert state
(a new record is to be added), the application can call the Cancel
method. The DBNavigator has the X sign on the appropriate button. If
the record is being edited the call to Cancel returns the original values
to connected data-aware components. If the insertion was canceled
the empty row is "deleted". Cancel returns dataset to Browse state.
Deleting a record

The button with the minus sign on the DBNavigator calls the Delete
method for the dataset. There is no need to call the Post method after
Delete. You can use the BeforeDelete event to attempt to prevent the
user from deleting the record from table. Note that the DBNavigator
has the ConfirmDelete property to help prevent the user from
accidentally deleting a record from the dataset. If you don't have the
DBNavigator connected to a dataset - pressing Ctrl+Delete in a
DBGrid calls the Delete method. If while executing the Delete method
an error occurs the OnDeleteError is triggered.
To the next chapter

As you can see, to modify the data in a dataset we can use several
approaches. The most important thing to have in mind is that Delphi
has provided us with enough properties, methods and events to be
sure that no data can be processed without us having some way of
controlling it.

>> Chapter 7: Queries with ADO
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ESSENTIALS
Queries with ADO
Chapter seven of the free Delphi Database Course for beginners. Take a look
· A Beginner’s Guide to at how you can take advantage of the TADOQuery component to boost your
Delphi Programming ADO-Delphi productivity.

In this chapter of the free database course for Delphi Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET
beginners - focus on ADO, we'll look at how you can take
· Free code APPs & advantage of the TADOQuery component to boost your Join the Discussion
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· A-Z Site Index SQL with TADOQuery Discuss!
The TADOQuery component provides Delphi developers
BUYER'S GUIDE the ability to fetch data from one or multiple tables from Related Resources
an ADO database using SQL. • free DB Course.TOC
• SQL with Delphi
What's New and Hot • more Database articles
These SQL statements can either be DDL (Data Definition
Top Picks-Tool/VCL Language) statements such as CREATE TABLE, ALTER
INDEX, and so forth, or they can be DML (Data
Beginners Here Manipulation Language) statements, such as SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE. The
most common statement, however, is the SELECT statement, which produces a view
COM/OLE/ActiveX similar to that available using a Table component.
Database
Distrubuted comp. Note: even though executing commands using the ADOQuery component is possible,
the ADOCommand component is more appropriate for this purpose. It is most often
Game Programming used to execute DDL commands or to execute a stored procedure (even though you
should use the TADOStoredProc for such tasks) that does not return a result set.
Graphics
Internet/Intranet The SQL used in a ADOQuery component must be acceptable to the ADO driver in
Mathematics use. In other words you should be familiar with the SQL writing differences between,
for example, MS Access and MS SQL.
Multimedia
Delphi Pascal/IDE As when working with the ADOTable component, the data in a database is accessed
using a data store connection established by the ADOQuery component using its
Screen saver dev. ConnectionString property or through a separate ADOConnection component specified
VCL Using in the Connection property.

VCL Write/Enhance To make a Delphi form capable of retrieving the data from an Access database with
Web Services the ADOQuery component simply drop all the related data-access and data-aware
components on it and make a link as described in the previous chapters of this
Windows/Shell/API course. The data-access components: DataSource, ADOConnection along with
Kylix (D on Linux) ADOQuery (instead of the ADOTable) and one data-aware component like DBGrid is
all we need.
As already explained, by using the Object Inspector set the link between those
Coding standards components as follows:
Books/Publications
DBGrid1.DataSource = DataSource1
Dev. Utilities
DataSource1.DataSet = ADOQuery1
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ADOQuery1.Connection = ADOConnection1
//build the ConnectionString as described in the second chapter.
Free Code Projects ADOConnection1.ConnectionString = ...
Humor and Fun ADOConnection1.LoginPrompt = False
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Doing a SQL query
Jobs and Offers The TADOQuery component doesn't have a TableName property as the TADOTable
does. TADOQuery has a property (TStrings) called SQL which is used to store the SQL
Training/CD/Video statement. You can set the SQL property's value with the Object Inspector at design
VCL & Tools time or through code at runtime.
At design-time, invoke the property editor for the

Subject Library SQL property by clicking the ellipsis button in the
Object Inspector.
Type the following SQL statement: "SELECT * FROM
All articles on this Authors".
topic
The SQL statement can be executed in one of two
ways, depending on the type of the statement. The
Stay up-to-date! Data Definition Language statements are generally
Subscribe to our executed with the ExecSQL method. For example to
newsletter. delete a specific record from a specific table you could write a DELETE DDL statement
Enter Email Go! and run the query with the ExecSQL method.
The (ordinary) SQL statements are executed by setting the TADOQuery.Active
Advertising property to True or by calling the Open method (essentialy the same). This approach
> Free Credit Report is similar to retrieving a table data with the TADOTable component.
> Free Psychics
At run-time, the SQL statement in the SQL property can be used as any StringList
object:
with ADOQuery1 do begin

Close;
SQL.Clear;
SQL.Add:='SELECT * FROM Authors '
SQL.Add:='ORDER BY authorname DESC'
Open;
end;
The above code, at run-time, closes the dataset, empties the SQL string in the SQL
property, assigns a new SQL command and activates the dataset by calling the Open
method.
Note that obviously creating a persistent list of field objects for an ADOQuery
component does not make sense. The next time you call the Open method the SQL

can be so different that the whole set of filed names (and types) may change. Of
course, this is not the case if we are using ADOQuery to fetch the rows from just one
table with the constant set of fields - and the resulting set depends on the WHERE
part of the SQL statement.
Dynamic queries
One of the great properties of the TADOQuery components is the Params property. A
parameterized query is one that permits flexible row/column selection using a
parameter in the WHERE clause of a SQL statement. The Params property allows
replacable parameters in the predefined SQL statement. A parameter is a placeholder
for a value in the WHERE clause, defined just before the query is opened. To specify a
parameter in a query, use a colon (:) preceding a parameter name.
At design-time use the Object Inspector to set the SQL property as follows:
ADOQuery1.SQL := 'SELECT * FROM Applications WHERE type = :apptype'
When you close the SQL editor window open the Parameters
window by clicking the ellipsis button in the Object
Inspector.
The parameter in the preceding SQL statement is named

apptype. We can set the values of the parameters in the
Params collection at design time via the Parameters dialog box, but most of the time
we will be changing the parameters at runtime. The Parameters dialog can be used to
specify the datatypes and default values of parameters used in a query.
At run-time, the parameters can be changed and the query re-executed to refresh
the data. In order to execute a parameterized query, it is necessary to supply a value
for each parameter prior to the execution of the query. To modify the parameter
value, we use either the Params property or ParamByName method. For example,
given the SQL statement as above, at run-time we could use the following code:

Close;
SQL.Clear;
SQL.Add('SELECT * FROM Applications WHERE type =:apptype');
ParamByName('apptype').Value:='multimedia';
Open;
end;
Navigating and editing the query

As like when working with the ADOTable component the ADOQuery returns a set or
records from a table (or two or more). Navigating through a dataset is done with the
same set of methods as described in the "Behind data in datasets" chapter.
In general ADOQuery component should not be used when editing takes place. The
SQL based queries are mostly used for reporting purposes. If your query returns a
result set, it is sometimes possible to edit the returned dataset. The result set must
contain records from a single table and it must not use any SQL aggregate functions.
Editing of a dataset returned by the ADOQuery is the same as editing the ADOTAble's
dataset.
An example
To see some ADOQuery action we'll code a small example. Let's make a query that

can be used to fetch the rows from various tables in a database. To show the list of
all the tables in a database we can use the GetTableNames method of the
ADOConnection component. The GetTableNames in the OnCreate event of the form
fills the ComboBox with the table names and the Button is used to close the query
and to recreate it to retrieve the records from a picked table. The () event handlers
should look like:

begin
ADOConnection1.GetTableNames(ComboBox1.Items);
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);

var tblname : string;
begin
if ComboBox1.ItemIndex < 0 then Exit;
tblname := ComboBox1.Items[ComboBox1.ItemIndex];
Close;
SQL.Text := 'SELECT * FROM ' + tblname;
Open;
end;
end;
Note that all this can be done by using the ADOTable and it's TableName property -
much easily.
To the next chapter

By now, you should be familiar with the ways to get the data from an Access
database and even change it. So far, this course has introduced only two ADO specific
Delphi components (ADOTable and ADOQuery) - enough to do just about any kind of
data operation you need. If you need any kind of help so far, please post to the
Delphi Programming Forum where all the questions are answered and beginners are
treated as experts.

>> Chapter 8: Data filtering
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Data filtering - DB/8
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ESSENTIALS
Data filtering
Chapter eight of the free Delphi Database Course for beginners.
· A Beginner’s Guide to Using Filters to narrow the scope of data that is presented to the
Delphi Programming user.
· Free course: Delphi More of this Feature

ADO DB programming As stated in one of the previous chapters, Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET both TADOQuery and TADODatSet (as

dataset components) share the same set of Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & common methods and events. On of the "Post your views and comments
features exposed by those datasets is the
VCL database Programming Course"
ability to narrow the scope of data that is Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index presented to the user.
Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE Consider that you might have a database • free DB Course.TOC
table with thousands of records, but your • Incremental searching
users are interested in seeing or working on • Coloring DBGrid
only a small subset of the table data.
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
To follow the article, set up the data form
Beginners Here with the core components (data-access and data-aware) as described in
the previous chapters. The next code examples will assume that you are
COM/OLE/ActiveX
working with the ADOTable component pointing to the Applications table
Database in our working Access database.
Distrubuted comp.
Filtering
Game Programming Filtering is the method by which some data from the dataset is excluded
Graphics from view by displaying only those records that meet specific criteria.
Filtering permits you to present varying views of the data stored in a
Internet/Intranet dataset without actually affecting that data. This criteria is set through
the Filter property of the dataset component (TADOTable or

Mathematics TADOQuery), it can be set at both design and run time. Filter property
represents a string that defines the filter criteria.
Multimedia For example, if you want to limit the displayed data (from the
Delphi Pascal/IDE Applications table) to freeware applications (cost $0.00), a filter such as
the following will only display records that meet the condition:
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
ADOTable1.Filter := 'Cost = 0';
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API You can also add a value for Filter based on the text entered in a control.
If the filtered dataset should only display free applications and you want
Kylix (D on Linux) to enable users to supply the type of the applications, a filter could be
set as follows:
Coding standards
Books/Publications ADOTable1.Filter :=
Dev. Utilities 'Cost = 0 AND
Type = ' + QuotedStr(Edit1.Text);
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun By using combinations of the following operators, you can create quite
Icons and Glyphs sophisticated filters.
Jobs and Offers

Operator Meaning
Training/CD/Video < Less than
VCL & Tools > Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to
Subject Library = Equal to
<> Not equal to
All articles on this AND Tests two statements are both True
topic NOT Tests that the following statement is not True
OR Tests that at least one of two statements is True
Stay up-to-date!
Filtered, FilterOptions, FilterGroup, OnFilterRecord
Subscribe to our
The Filtered property is a Boolean value (True or False) that determines
newsletter.
if the string in the Filter property is used to filter the dataset. When
Enter Email Go! Filtered is False, the filtering is ignored and the complete dataset is
available to the application.
Advertising
> Free Credit Report The FilterOptions is a set of two values - both used when filtering string
> Free Psychics fields. If the foCaseInsensitive is included in the FilterOptions,
comparison between the literal in the Filter property string and the field
values are case-insensitive. The foNoPartialCompare forces Delphi to
treat the asterisks (*) as a literal character rather than as wildcard. By
default, FilterOptions is set to an empty set.
The OnFilterRecord event fires each time the filtering is enabled and a

new record becomes the current one. You will generally use this event to
filter records using a criterion that can't be (easily) implemented using
the Filter property.
procedure TForm1.ADOTable1FilterRecord
(DataSet: TDataSet; var Accept: Boolean);
var AppZipSize : Single;
begin
AppZipSize := ADOTable1.FieldByName('size').Value;
Accept := (AppZipSize < 10);
end;
The key element here is the Accept parameter. You set the Accept
parameter to True for any rows that you want to show. The preceding
code sets Accept to True for any rows in which the Size field contains a
value that is less than 10 (all apps whose download size is less than 10
Kb).
The FilterGroup set property allows you to filter records depending on

their status.
To filter or not to filter

Note that
● the Filter property behaves much like a WHERE clause in a SQL
statement.
● you can have multiple conditions, specified in the Filter property,
separated by AND and OR operators.

● generally one should avoid Filters unless the fetched recordset is
small. A filter is done on the fly, and may or may not use the current
index (filters are applied to every record retrieved in a dataset).
● filters are rarely used with client/server databases, a SQL query
(TADOQuery) should be used to achieve the same effect that filters have
on local databases.
● you should generally not use filtering with datasets on data modules.
In a specific situation when filtering a table that is never viewed from any
other form, or a table that makes use of a range, or sort order that is not
used anywhere else in the application - data modules *should* be
avoided.
● to search a filtered dataset, you can use the FindFirst, FindNext,
FindPrior, and FindLast methods. These methods are the best way to
search a filtered dataset because the filter is reapplied each time one of
these methods is called. Therefore, if records that previously did not
match the filter have been modified so that they now match the filter,
they will be included in the dataset before the search is performed.
To the next chapter

If you need any kind of help so far, please post to the Delphi
Programming Forum where all the questions are answered and beginners

are treated as experts.

>> Chapter 9: Searching for data
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Searching for data - DB/9
Delphi Programming

hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
Searching for data.
Chapter nine of the free Delphi Database Course for beginners.
· A Beginner’s Guide to Walking through various methods of data seeking and locating
Delphi Programming while developing ADO based Delphi database applications.

ADO DB programming A very common task for a database Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET application is to search for a specific record

based on some criteria. In Delphi, Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & ADOExpress components implement record "Post your views and comments
searching methods analogous to those
found in the BDE approach. This chapter will Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index walk you through various methods of data
seeking and locating while developing ADO Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE based Delphi database applications. • free DB Course.TOC
• Incremental searching BDE
What's New and Hot Note: the rest of this chapter deals with the
aboutdelphi.mdb MS Access database that
Top Picks-Tool/VCL was introduced in the first chapter of this course. To use the code
examples presented in this chapter, set up the data form with the core
Beginners Here components (data-access and data-aware) as described in the previous
chapters. The following code examples will assume that you are working
COM/OLE/ActiveX with the ADOTable component pointing to the Applications table in our
Database database.
Distrubuted comp.
When you think of it, a searching algorithm could look like: start at the
Game Programming top of the table, examine the field in each row - to see if it matches the
criteria, stop the loop on the selected record or at the bottom row -
Graphics whichever comes first.
Internet/Intranet Hopefully, Delphi hides those *steps* from us. There are several ways
to locate a record in a dataset retrieved by an ADODataset (Table or

Mathematics Query) component.

Multimedia
Locate
Delphi Pascal/IDE This generic search method sets the current record to be the first row
Screen saver dev. matching a specified set of search criteria. By using the Locate method
we can look for values of one or more fields, passed in a variant array.
VCL Using The next code puts the Locate method to work finding the first record
that contains the string 'Zoom' in the Name field. If the call to Locate
VCL Write/Enhance
returns True - the record is found and is set to be the current one.
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API AdoTable1.Locate('Name','Zoom',[]);
Kylix (D on Linux)
{...or...}
Coding standards
var ffield, fvalue: string;
Books/Publications opts : TLocateOptions;
Dev. Utilities
ffield := 'Name';
FAQs/Tips/Tricks fvalue := 'zoom';
Free Code Projects opts := [loCaseInsensitive];
Humor and Fun if not AdoTable1.Locate(ffield, fvalue, opts) then
Icons and Glyphs ShowMessage(fvalue + ' not found in ' + ffield);
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
Lookup
VCL & Tools Lookup does not move the cursor to the matching row, it only returns
values from it. Lookup returns a variant array containing the values from
the fields specified in a semicolon-delimited list of field names whose
Subject Library values should be returned from the matching row. If there are no
matching records, Lookup returns a Null variant.
The following code fills in a LookupRes variant array
topic
var LookupRes: Variant;

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LookupRes := ADOTable1.Lookup
newsletter.
('Name', 'Zoom', 'Author; Description');
Enter Email Go!
if not VarIsNull(LookupRes) then
Advertising ShowMessage(VarToStr(LookupRes[0])) //author name
> Free Psychics
One advantage of the Locate and Lookup methods is that they don't
require the table to be indexed. However, the Locate function will use
the fastest method available to search the table; if a table is indexed,
Locate will use the index.

Indexing
An index helps find and sort records

faster. You can create indexes based
on a single field or on multiple fields.
Multiple-field indexes enable you to
distinguish between records in which
the first field may have the same
value. In most cases you'll want to
index fields you search/resort
frequently. For example, if you search
for specific application type in a Type
field, you can create an index for this field to speed up the search for a
specific type.
The primary key of a table is automatically indexed, and you can't index
a field whose data type is OLE Object. Note that if many of the values in
the field are the same, the index may not significantly speed up data
retrieval.
The main drawbacks are that indexes consume additional disk space,
and inserting, deleting and updating of data takes longer takes longer on
indexed columns than on non indexed columns.
When working with a Table component and the BDE (not ADO) Delhi
provides us with a number of functions that will search for values in a
database table. Some of these are Goto, GoToKey, GoToNearest, Find,
FindKey, Find Nearest, etc. For a complete reference see Delphi's help,
topic: Searching for records based on indexed fields. The ADO approach
does not support those methods, instead it introduces a Seek method.
Seek
The ADO datasets Seek method uses an index when performing a
search. If you don't specify an index and you are working with an Access
database, the database engine will use the primary key index.
Seek is used to find a record with a specified value (or values) in the
field (or fields) on which the current index is based. If Seek does not
find the desired row, no error occurs, and the row is positioned at the
end of the dataset. Seek returns a boolean value reflecting the success
of the search: True if a record was found or False if no matching record
was found.
The GetIndexNames method of a TADOTable component

retrieves a list (for example: items of a combo box) of
available indexes for a table.
ADOTable1.GetIndexNames(ComboBox1.Items);
The same list is available at design-time in the IndexName

property of a TADOTable component. The IndexFieldNames
property can be used as an alternative method of
specifying the index to use for a table. In IndexFieldNames,
specify the name of each field to use as an index for a

table.
The Seek method has the following declaration:
function Seek(const KeyValues: Variant; SeekOption: TSeekOption =

soFirstEQ): Boolean;
· KeyValues is an array of Variant values. An index consists of one or

more columns and the array contains a value to compare against each
corresponding column.
· SeekOption specifies the type of comparison to be made between the
columns of the index and the corresponding KeyValues.
SeekOption Meaning
Record pointer positioned at the first matching record, if one is found, or
soFirstEQ
at the end of the dataset if one is not found
Record pointer positioned at the last matching record, if one is found, or
soLastEQ
at the end of the dataset if one is not found.
Record pointer positioned at matching record, if found, or just after
soAfterEQ
where that matching record would have been found.
Record pointer positioned just after where a matching record would
soAfter
have been found.
Record pointer positioned at matching record, if found, or just before
soBeforeEQ
where that matching record would have been found.
Record pointer positioned just before where a matching record would
soBefore
have been found.
Note 1: the Seek method is supported only with server-side cursors.

Seek is not supported when the dataset's CursorLocation property value
is clUseClient. Use the Supports method to determine whether the
underlying provider supports Seek.
Note 2: when you use the Seek method on multiple fields, the Seek
fields must be in the same order as the fields in the underlying table. If
they are not, the Seek method fails.
Note 3: you cannot use the Seek method on TADOQuery component.
To determine whether a matching record was found, we use the BOF or

EOF property (depending on the search direction). The next code uses
the index specified in the ComboBox to look for a value typed in the
Edit1 edit box.

var strIndex: string;
strIndex := ComboBox1.Text; //from the code above
if ADOTable1.Supports(coSeek) then begin

with ADOTable1 do begin
Close;
IndexName := strIndex;
CursorLocation := clUseServer;
Open;
Seek (Edit1.Text, soFirstEQ);
end;
if ADOTable1.EOF then
ShowMessage ('Record value NOT found');
end
To the next chapter

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>> ADO Cursors - DB/10
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ADO Cursors - DB/10 - Page 1/2
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Spiegel, and more!
ESSENTIALS
ADO Cursors
Page 1: How ADO uses cursors as a storage and access
· A Beginner’s Guide to mechanism.
Delphi Programming
ADO DB programming Welcome to the chapter ten of the • Page 2: Cursor properties
free Delphi ADO Database Course
· Delphi for .NET Join the Discussion
for beginners. In the past nine
· Free code APPs & chapters you were presented with to this chapter of the free Delphi
some of the basic techniques when database Programming Course"
VCL
developing ADO-based Delphi Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index applications. We've seen how
several data-access components are Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE used to connect and retrieve data • free DB Course.TOC
from an Access database. One thing
is for sure: ADOExpress components Elsewhere on the Web
What's New and Hot fit quite nicely into the Delphi data • Choosing and Managing
Top Picks-Tool/VCL access model and map very closely Cursors
to the basic data objects that ADO
uses to access data.
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX However, the way you use ADOExpress components is quite
different from the traditional Delphi programming with the BDE
Database
based TTable, and TQuery components. If you're accustomed to
Distrubuted comp. working with the BDE dataset components, there are a number
of things you'll find different when you use ADO. The available

Game Programming properties are different, and so should be the programming

style.
Graphics
Internet/Intranet At the heart of ADO is the Recordset object. The Recordset
Mathematics object (aka Dataset) is a result of a Query command (SELECT
statement of a TADOQuery component, for example). When an
Multimedia ADO-based application retrieves rows from a database, an ADO
Recordset object encapsulates the data and the operations
Delphi Pascal/IDE
allowed on that data. ADO uses cursors to contain the logical set
Screen saver dev. of rows maintained for a recordset. The cursor also provide the
current position in the recordset. In development we use cursors
VCL Using
to create a recordset to scroll forward or backward in, or to have
VCL Write/Enhance the recordset pick up another user's changes.
Web Services
Cursor?!
Windows/Shell/API The simplest definition would be: a query result set where
browsing is enabled and the current position is known.
Kylix (D on Linux)
Within ADO, cursors have three functions.

Coding standards
First, the cursor type determines movement
Books/Publications within the cursor and whether the recordset
will reflect users changes. Second, the
Dev. Utilities cursor location determines where to store
FAQs/Tips/Tricks the recordset while the cursor is open.
Third, the cursor's locking type specifies
Free Code Projects how an ADO datastore will lock the rows
Humor and Fun when you want to make changes.
Icons and Glyphs The understanding of cursors is extremely important. For

Jobs and Offers example, in order to get our recordset to do the things we want,
we need to open certain ADO recordsets with specific types of
Training/CD/Video cursors. To RecordCount property, for example, is NOT
VCL & Tools supported with forward-only cursors.
In the ADOExpress set, TCustomADODataSet encapsulates a set

Subject Library of properties, events, and methods for working with data
accessed through an ADO datastore. All the
TCustomADODataSet descendant classes (TADODataSet,
All articles on this TADOTable, TADOQuery, and TADOStoredProc) share several
topic common properties. Use the CursorType, CursorLocation, and
LockType properties to create the most efficient recordset.
Next page > CursorType, CursorLocation, LockType > Page 1, 2

>> Migrating from Paradox/dBase to Access with Delphi and
ADO.

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ADO Cursors
Page 2: CursorType, CursorLocation, LockType properties.
· A Beginner’s Guide to What you should do to choose the best cursor for your
Delphi Programming Delphi ADO application.

CursorType • Page 1: About ADO Cursors
· Delphi for .NET Choosing the correct cursor has a
· Free code APPs & direct impact on the success of your
Delphi ADO-based application. ADO Join the Discussion
VCL
provides four cursor options:
· A-Z Site Index dynamic, keyset, forward-only and to this chapter of the free Delphi
static. Since each cursor type database Programming Course"
BUYER'S GUIDE behaves differently, you will greatly Discuss!
benefit from understanding the
capabilities of each one. Related Resources
What's New and Hot • free DB Course.TOC
Top Picks-Tool/VCL The CursorType property specifies

how you move through the
recordset and whether changes • Choosing and Managing
Beginners Here Cursors
made on the database are visible to
COM/OLE/ActiveX the recordset after you retrieve it. • How the ADO Cursor Engine
Delphi wraps ADO cursor types in Updates Your Database
Database • How ADO Uses Cursors
the TCursorType.
Distrubuted comp.
ctDynamic

Game Programming Allows you to view additions, changes and deletions by other
users, and allows all types of movement through the Recordset
Graphics that don't rely on bookmarks; allows bookmarks if the provider
Internet/Intranet supports them. The Supports method of an ADODataset
indicates whether a recordset supports certain types of
Mathematics operations. The following statement can be used to check if the
Multimedia provider supports bookmarks:
if ADOTable1.Supports(coBookmark) then ...
Delphi Pascal/IDE Choose dynamic cursors if multiple users insert, update, and
delete rows in the database at the same time.
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using ctKeyset
VCL Write/Enhance Behaves like a dynamic cursor, except that it prevents you from
seeing records that other users add, and prevents access to
Web Services records that other users delete. Data change by other users will
Windows/Shell/API still be visible. It always supports bookmarks and therefore
allows all types of movement through the Recordset.
Kylix (D on Linux)
ctStatic
Coding standards Provides a static copy of a set of records for you to use to find
data or generate reports. Always allows bookmarks and
Books/Publications therefore allows all types of movement through the Recordset.
Dev. Utilities Additions, changes, or deletions by other users will not be
visible. A static cursor behaves like the result set from a BDE
FAQs/Tips/Tricks Query component with its RequestLive property set to False.
Free Code Projects
ctForward-only
Humor and Fun
Behaves identically to a dynamic cursor except that it allows you
Icons and Glyphs to scroll only forward through records. This improves
performance in situations where you need to make only a single
Jobs and Offers pass through a Recordset.
Training/CD/Video
Note: only ctStatic is supported if the CursorLocation property of
VCL & Tools
the ADO dataset component is set to clUseClient.
Subject Library Note: if the requested cursor type is not supported by the
provider, the provider may return another cursor type. That is, if
you try to set CursorLocation to clUseServer and CursorType to
All articles on this ctDynamic, on an Access database, Delphi will change the
topic CursorType to ctKeyset.
CursorLocation
The CursorLocation property defines where the recordset is
created when it's opened — on the client or the server.
The data in a client-side cursor is "inherently disconnected" from

the database. ADO retrieves the results of the selection query
(all rows) and copies the data to the client before you start using

Stay up-to-date! it (into the ADO cursor). After you make changes to your
Subscribe to our Recordset, the ADO translates those changes into an action
newsletter. query and submits that query to your database through the OLE
Enter Email Go! DB provider. The client-side cursor behaves like a local cache.
In most cases, a client-side cursor is preferred, because scrolling
and updates are faster and more efficient, although returning
Advertising data to the client increases network traffic.
> Free Psychics
Using the server-side cursor means retrieving only the required
records, requesting more from the server as the user browses
the data. Server-side cursors are useful when inserting,
updating, or deleting records. This type of cursor can sometimes
provide better performance than the client-side cursor,
especially in situations where excessive network traffic is a
problem.
You should consider a number of factors when choosing a cursor

type: whether you're doing more data updates or just retrieving
data, whether you'll be using ADO in a desktop application or in
an Internet-based application, the size of your resultset, and
factors determined by your data store and environment. Other
factors might restrict you as well. For example, the MS Access
doesn't support dynamic cursors; it uses keyset instead. Some
data providers automatically scale the CursorType and
CursorLocation properties, while others generate an error if you
use an unsupported CursorType or CursorLocation.
LockType
The LockType property tells the provider what type of locks
should be placed on records during editing. Locking can prevent
one user from reading data that is being changed by another
user, and it can prevent a user from changing data that is about
to be changed by another user.
Modifying a record in an Access database locks some

neighboring records. This is because Access uses, so called, page
locking strategy. This means that if a user is editing a record,
some other user won't be allowed to modify that record, or even
to modify the next few records after or before it.
In Delphi, the TADOLockType specifies the types of locks that

can be used. You can control row and page locking by setting the
appropriate cursor lock option. To use a specific locking scheme,
the provider and database type must support that locking
scheme.
ltOptimistic
Optimistic locking locks the record only when it's physically

updated. This type of locking is useful in conditions where there

is only a small chance that a second user may update a row in
the interval between when a cursor is opened and the row is
finally updated. The current values in the row are compared with
the values retrieved when the row was last fetched.
ltPessimistic
Pessimistic locking locks each record while it's being edited. This
option tells ADO to get an exclusive lock on the row when the
user makes any change to any column in the record. The
ADOExpress components don't directly support pessimistic
record locking because ADO itself does not have any way to
arbitrarily lock a given record and still support navigating to
other records.
ltReadOnly
Read only locking simply does not allow data editing. This lock is
useful in conditions where your application must temporarily
prevent data changes, but still can allow unrestricted reading.
Read only locking with CursorType set to ctForwardOnly is ideal
for reporting purposes.
ltBatchOptimistic
BatchOptimistic locking is used with disconnected recordsets.
These recordsets are updated locally and all modifications are
sent back to the database in a batch.
To the next chapter

Next page > About ADO Cursors > Page 1, 2

>> Migrating from Paradox/dBase to Access with Delphi and
ADO.
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ESSENTIALS
From Paradox to Access with ADO
Page 1: Focusing on the TADOCommand components and using
· A Beginner’s Guide to the SQL DDL language.
Delphi Programming
Chapter 5 of this course (Free Delphi • Page 2: Porting a table
ADO DB programming Database Course for Beginners - focus on
Join the Discussion
· Delphi for .NET ADO techniques) featured the ADOQuery
component designed to enable Delphi
· Free code APPs & developers to use the SQL language with database Programming Course"
ADO. The SQL statements can either be Discuss!
VCL
DDL (Data Definition Language) statements
· A-Z Site Index such as CREATE TABLE, ALTER INDEX, and Related Resources
so forth, or they can be DML (Data • free DB Course.TOC
BUYER'S GUIDE Manipulation Language) statements, such • Queries with ADO
as SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE. • SQL with Delphi
What's New and Hot
In this chapter, I'll focus on the
Top Picks-Tool/VCL TADOCommand components and using the SQL DDL language to help
port your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access.
Beginners Here
Data definition language
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Creating a database programmatically isn't something most developers
Database do every day - we all use some kind of visual tool, like MS Access for
maintaining a MDB file. Unfortunately, sometimes you'll need to create
Distrubuted comp. and destroy databases and database objects from code. The most basic
Game Programming technique in use today is the Structured Query Language Data
Definition Language (SQL DDL). Data definition language (DDL)
Graphics statements are SQL statements that support the definition or
Internet/Intranet declaration of database objects (for example, CREATE TABLE, DROP

Mathematics TABLE, CREATE INDEX and similar statements).

My intention here is not to teach you the DDL language, if you are
Multimedia familiar with the SQL DML then DDL should be no barrier for you. Note
Delphi Pascal/IDE that working with DDL can be quite tricky, every database vendor
generally provides its own extensions to SQL.
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using Let's quickly take a look at a simple CREATE TABLE statement:
VCL Write/Enhance
CREATE TABLE PhoneBook(
Web Services Name TEXT(50)
Tel TEXT(50)
Windows/Shell/API
);
Kylix (D on Linux)
This DDL statemnt (for MS Access), when executed, will create a new
Coding standards table named PhoneBook. The PhoneBook table will have two fields,
Name and Tel. Both fields are of the string (TEXT) type and the size of
Books/Publications the fields is 50 characters.
Dev. Utilities
TFieldDef.DataType
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Obviously, the data type that represents a string in Access is TEXT. In
Free Code Projects Paradox it's STRING. In order to port Paradox tables to Access we'll
have to know what data types are available and what are their names.
Humor and Fun When working with the BDE and Paradox tables, the
Icons and Glyphs TFieldDef.DataType determines the type of a physical field in a
(dataset) table. To successfully migrate Paradox tables to Access you
Jobs and Offers need to have a function that "transforms" a Paradox field type to an
Training/CD/Video Access type.
The next function checks the type of the field (fd) and returns the
VCL & Tools corresponding Access type along with a field size when needed for a
CREATE TABLE DDL statement.
Subject Library
function AccessType(fd:TFieldDef):string;
begin
All articles on this case fd.DataType of
topic ftString: Result:='TEXT('+IntToStr(fd.Size)+')';
ftSmallint: Result:='SMALLINT';
Stay up-to-date!
ftInteger: Result:='INTEGER';
Subscribe to our ftWord: Result:='WORD';
newsletter. ftBoolean: Result:='YESNO';
Enter Email Go! ftFloat : Result:='FLOAT';
ftCurrency: Result := 'CURRENCY';
Advertising ftDate, ftTime, ftDateTime: Result := 'DATETIME';
> Free Credit Report ftAutoInc: Result := 'COUNTER';
> Free Psychics ftBlob, ftGraphic: Result := 'LONGBINARY';
ftMemo, ftFmtMemo: Result := 'MEMO';
else
Result:='MEMO';
end;
end;

ADOX
ADO Extensions for Data Definition Language and Security (ADOX) is an
extension to the ADO objects and programming model. ADOX gives
developers a rich set of tools for gaining access to the structure,
security model, and procedures stored in a database.
To use ADOX in Delphi, you should establish a reference to the ADOX

type library.
1. Select Project | Import Type Library
3. Choose "Microsoft ADO Ext 2.x for DDL and Security (Version 2.x)"
4. Change "TTable" to "TADOXTable"
5. Change "TColumn" to "TADOXColumn"
6 .Change "TIndex" to "TADOXIndex"
7. Press Install button (rebuilding packages)
8. Press OK once and Yes twice
9. File | Close All | Yes
The top-level object in the ADOX object model is the Catalog object. It
provides access to the Tables, Views, and Procedures collections, which
are used to work with the structure of the database, and also provides
the Users and Groups collections, which are used to work with security.
Each Catalog object is associated with only one Connection to an
underlying data source.
We'll leave ADOX (at least for now) and stick to ADOExpress.
TADOCommand
In ADOExpress, the TADOCommand component is the VCL
representation of the ADO Command object. The Command object
represents a command (a query or statement) that can be processed by
the data source. Commands can then be executed using the
ADOCommand's Execute method. TADOCommand is most often used
for executing data definition language (DDL) SQL commands. The
CommandText property specifies the command to execute. The
CommandType property determines how the CommandText property is
interpreted. The cmdText type is used to specify the DDL statement.
Although it makes no sense to use the ADOCommand component to
retrieve a dataset from a table, query, or stored procedure, you can do
so.
It's time for some real code...
Next page > Project to port your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access. >
Page 1, 2

>> Master detail relationships

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From Paradox to Access with ADO
Page 2: Project to port your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi • Page 1: DDL ADOCommand
The following project will demonstrate how
ADO DB programming to: • Download Code
· Delphi for .NET Printer friendly version

● get the list of all tables in a BDE alias
· Free code APPs & ● use TFieldDefs in order to retrieve the Join the Discussion
VCL definition (name, data type, size, etc.) of "Post your views and comments
fields in a table. to this chapter of the free Delphi
· A-Z Site Index ● create a CREATE TABLE statement database Programming Course"
Discuss!
● copy data from BDE/Paradox table to
BUYER'S GUIDE ADO/Access table. Related Resources
What's New and Hot Basically what we want to do is to copy • Queries with ADO
several tables from DBDemos to our • SQL with Delphi
Top Picks-Tool/VCL aboutdelphi.mdb Access database. The • more Database articles
structure of the aboutdelphi.mdb is
Beginners Here discussed in the first chapter. Elsewhere on the Web
COM/OLE/ActiveX • Fundamental MS Jet SQL for

Let's do it step by step: Access 2000
Database GUI • Intermediate MS Jet SQL for
Start Delphi - this creates a new project Access 2000
Distrubuted comp.
with one blank form. Add two Buttons, one • Advanced MS Jet SQL for
Game Programming ComboBox and one Memo component. Access 2000
Graphics Next, add a TTable, TADOTable,

TADOConnection and a TADOCommand component. Use the Object
Internet/Intranet Inspector to set the following properties (leave all the other properties

as they are - for example the Memo should have the default name:
Mathematics
Memo1):
Multimedia
Button1.Caption = 'Construct Create command'
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Button2.Caption = 'Create Table and copy data'
Screen saver dev. ComboBox.Name = cboBDETblNames;
VCL Using //as described in the second chapter

ADOConnection1.ConnectionString = ...
VCL Write/Enhance TADOTable.Name = ADOTable
ADOTable.Connection = ADOConnection1
Web Services TADOCommand.Name = ADOCommand
ADOCommand.Connection = ADOConnection1
Windows/Shell/API TTable.Name = BDETable
BDETable.DatabaseName = 'DBDEMOS'
Kylix (D on Linux)
Code
Coding standards
To retrieve a list of the tables associated with a given database
Books/Publications (DBDEMOS) we use the next code (OnCreate for the form):
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
begin
Free Code Projects Session.GetTableNames('DBDEMOS',
Humor and Fun '*.db',False, False,
cboBDETblNames.Items);
Icons and Glyphs
end;
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools When you start the project the ComboBox has all the (Paradox) table
names in the DBDEMOS alias directory. In the code that follows, we'll
pick the Country table.
Subject Library
The next task is to create a CREATE TABLE DDL statement. This gets
All articles on this done in the 'Construct Create command' button's OnClick procedure:
topic
//'Construct Create command' button
Stay up-to-date! var i:integer;
Subscribe to our
s:string;
newsletter.
begin
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BDETable.TableName:=cboBDETblNames.Text;
BDETable.FieldDefs.Update;
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s:='CREATE TABLE ' + BDETable.TableName + ' (';
> Free Psychics
with BDETable.FieldDefs do begin
for i:=0 to Count-1 do begin
s:=s + ' ' + Items[i].Name;
s:=s + ' ' + AccessType(Items[i]);
s:=s + ',';

end; //for
s[Length(s)]:=')';
end;//with
Memo1.Clear;
Memo1.lines.Add (s);
end;
The above code simply parses the field definitions for the selected table
(cboBDETblNames) and generates a string that will be used by the
CommandText property of the TADOCommand component.
For example, when you select the Country table the Memo gets filled
with the next string:
CREATE TABLE country (

Name TEXT(24),
Capital TEXT(24),
Continent TEXT(24),
Area FLOAT,
Population FLOAT
)
And finally, the code for the 'Create Table and copy data' button drops
a table (DROP..EXECUTE), creates a table (CREATE..EXECUTE), and then
copies data into the new table (INSERT...POST). Some error handling
code is provided, but the code will fail if, for example, the (new) table
does not already exist (since it first gets dropped).

//'Create Table and copy data' button
var i:integer;
tblName:string;
begin
tblName:=cboBDETblNames.Text;
//refresh
Button1Click(Sender);
//drop & create table

ADOCommand.CommandText:='DROP TABLE ' + tblName;
ADOCommand.Execute;
ADOCommand.CommandText:=Memo1.Text;
ADOCommand.Execute;
ADOTable.TableName:=tblName;

//copy data
BDETable.Open;
ADOTable.Open;
try
while not BDETable.Eof do begin
ADOTable.Insert;
for i:=0 to BDETable.Fields.Count-1 do begin
ADOTable.FieldByName
(BDETable.FieldDefs[i].Name).Value :=
BDETable.Fields[i].Value;
end;//for
ADOTable.Post;
BDETable.Next
end;//while
finally
BDETable.Close;
ADOTable.Close;
end;//try
end;
That's it. Check out your Access database now...voila there is a Country
table with all the data from DBDEMOS.
Now you can port all your Paradox tables to Access (download code).
Few questions, however, stay unanswered. The first one is: how to add
index definitions (CREATE INDEX ON ...) to tables. The second one is: how
to create an empty Access database. I'll leave those (and others you
can think of) for the Forum or for some future article - Chapter 13
precisely.
To the next chapter

First page > Focusing on the TADOCommand components and using

the SQL DDL language. > Page 1, 2

>> Master detail relationships
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ESSENTIALS
Master-detail relationships ADO and
· A Beginner’s Guide to Delphi
Page 1: One-to-Many relationships - why and when?
Delphi Programming
Master-detail data relationships are • Page 2: Realtions in Access
ADO DB programming
a fact of life for every Delphi • Page 3: ADO master-detail
· Delphi for .NET database developer; just as data
Join the Discussion
relationships are a fundamental
· Free code APPs & "Post your views and comments
feature of relational databases.
In the previous chapters of this Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index
course, we've invariably used only Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE one table from our "demo"
aboutdelphi.mdb MS Access
database. In real time database
What's New and Hot
programming, the data in one table
Top Picks-Tool/VCL is related to the data in other tables. In general, tables can be
related in one of three different ways: one-to-one, one-to-many
or many-to-many. This chapter will show you how to use one-to-
Beginners Here
many database relationships to deal effectively with the problem
COM/OLE/ActiveX of joining two database tables to present information.
Database
A one-to-many relationship, often referred to as a "master-
Distrubuted comp. detail" or "parent-child" relationship, is the most usual
relationship between two tables in a database.

Game Programming
Common scenarios include customer/purchase data,
Graphics patient/medical-record data, and student/course-result data. For
Internet/Intranet example, each customer is associated with at least one order
record. Valued customers have many order records involving
Mathematics significant sums and often a user needs to view one in
Multimedia connection with the other. In a one-to-many relationship, a
record in Table A can have (none or one or) more than one
Delphi Pascal/IDE matching record in Table B, but for every record in Table B there
is exactly one record in Table A.
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using A typical master-detail data browsing form displays the results of
VCL Write/Enhance a one-to-many relationship, where one DBGrid displays (or set of
data enabled controls) the results of the first or master table. It
Web Services then tracks a selection in the first DBGrid to filter the results of a
Windows/Shell/API second table used to display the details of the selection in the
second DBGrid.
Kylix (D on Linux)
When working with the BDE and Delphi, the simplest way to
Coding standards assemble a master-detail form is to use the Database Form
Wizard. Wizard simplifies the steps needed to create a tabular or
Books/Publications
data-entry form by use of an existing database, unfortunately it
Dev. Utilities is designed to use the BDE versions of TTable and TQuery
FAQs/Tips/Tricks components. Everything the wizard does, we can do by hand.
Free Code Projects Since, through this course, we are working with the ADOExpress
Humor and Fun set of Delphi components, we'll need to set all the components
step by step. Firstly we have to make sure that we have two
Icons and Glyphs tables in a master-detail relationship.
Jobs and Offers
Next page > One-to-many in MS Access > Page 1, 2, 3
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools DB Course Next Chapter >>
>> New...Access Database from Delphi
Subject Library
All articles on this More Delphi

topic · Learn another routine every day - RTL Quick Reference.
TOPIC.

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newsletter. create your own particle systems. The term system is defined to mean, 'A
group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a
Enter Email Go! complex whole'. You can use the particle to represent a cannonball being
shot out of a cannon - in trajectory games.
Advertising Stay informed with all new and interesting things about Delphi (for free).
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Page 2: MS Access relationships and referential integrity
Delphi Programming
ADO DB programming
MS Access relationships • Page 1: Data relationships
· Delphi for .NET Our focus will be on the following two • Page 3: ADO master-detail
tables: Customers and Orders. Both
· Free code APPs & tables are a part of the DBDEMOS
Join the Discussion
VCL database that comes with Delphi.
Since both tables are Paradox tables, database Programming Course"
· A-Z Site Index we'll use the code from the previous Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE article to port them to our working

Related Resources
aboutdelphi.mdb MS Access
database. • free DB Course.TOC
Top Picks-Tool/VCL Notice that when you port those

tables to Access both of them have no index or primary key nor
are they linked in any way in Access.
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX The power in a relational database management system such as
Database MS Access comes from its ability to quickly find and bring together
information stored in separate tables. In order for MS Access to
Distrubuted comp. work most efficiently, each table in your database should include
a field or set of fields that uniquely identifies each individual
Game Programming
record stored in the table. If two tables are liked in a relation (of

Graphics any kind) we should set that relation with the MS Access.
Internet/Intranet
Customers-Orders relation
Mathematics To set up the relationship, you add the field or fields that make up
the primary key on the "one" side of the relationship to the table
Multimedia
on the "many" side of the relationship. In our case, you would add
Delphi Pascal/IDE the CustNo field from the Customers table to the Orders table,
because one customer has many orders. Note that you have to
Screen saver dev.
set the CustNo in Customers to be the primary key for the table.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
When creating a relation between two tables MS Access provides
FAQs/Tips/Tricks us with the Referential Integrity feature. This feature prevents
adding records to a detail table for which there is no matching
Free Code Projects
record in the master table. It will also cause the key fields in the
Humor and Fun detail table to be changed when the corresponding key fields in
the master are changed - this is commonly referred to as a
Icons and Glyphs cascading update. The second options is to enable cascading
Jobs and Offers deletes. This causes the deletion of all the related records in a
detail table when the corresponding record in the master table
Training/CD/Video gets deleted. These events occur automatically, requiring no
VCL & Tools intervention by a Delphi application using these tables.
Now, when we have all the relations set up, we simply link few
Subject Library data components to create a master-detail data browsing Delphi
form.

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topic
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Page 3: Master-detail with AdoExpress components and
Delphi Programming
Delphi
ADO DB programming
Setting up Master/Detail with • Page 1: Data relationships
· Delphi for .NET ADOExpress • Page 2: Realtions in Access
Creating a master-detail data form
· Free code APPs & Printer friendly version
is not to much complicated. Have an
VCL empty Delphi form, and just follow Join the Discussion
the steps:
· A-Z Site Index "Post your views and comments
1. Select the ADO page on the database Programming Course"
BUYER'S GUIDE
Discuss!
Component palette. Add two
TADOTable components and one Related Resources
What's New and Hot TADOConnection to a form.
2. Select the Data Access page on
Top Picks-Tool/VCL • more Database articles
the Component palette. Add two
TDataSource components to a form.
Beginners Here 3. Select Data Controls page on the
COM/OLE/ActiveX Component palette. Place two TDbGrid components on a form.
Add two DBNavigator components, too.
Database 4. Use the ADOConnection, the ConnectionString property, to
link to the aboutdelphi.bdb MS Access database, as explained in
Distrubuted comp.
the first chapter of this course.
5. Connect DBGrid1 with DataSource1, and DataSource1 with

Game Programming ADOTable1. This will be the master table. Connect DBNavigator1
with DataSource1.
Graphics
6. Connect DBGrid2 with DataSource2, and DataSource2 with
Internet/Intranet ADOTable2. This will be the detail table. Connect DBNavigator2
with DataSource2.
Mathematics 7. Set ADOTable1.TableName to point to the Customers table
Multimedia (master).
8. Set ADOTable2.TableName to point to the Orders table
Delphi Pascal/IDE (detail).
Screen saver dev.
If you, at this moment, set the Active property of both ADOTable
VCL Using components to true, you'll notice that the entire Orders table is
VCL Write/Enhance displayed - this is because we haven't set up the master-detail
relationship yet.
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API Your form should look something like:
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic
MasterSource and MasterFields
The MasterSource and MasterFields properties of the TADOTable
component define master-detail relationships in Delphi/ADO
database applications.

Stay up-to-date! To create a master-detail

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newsletter. simply need to set the detail
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to the DataSource of the
master table and its
Advertising MasterFields property to the
> Free Credit Report chosen key field in the master
> Free Psychics table.
In our case, first, set

ADOTable2.MasterSource to be DataSource1. Second, activate
the Field Link Designer window to set the MasterFields property:
in the Detail Fields list box and the Master Fields list box select
the CustNo field. Click Add and OK.
These properties keep both tables in synchronization, so as you

move through the Customers table, the Orders table will only
move to records which match the key field (CustNo) in the
Customers table.
Each time you highlight a row and select a new customer, the
second grid displays only the orders pertaining to that customer.
When you delete a record in a master table - all the

corresponding record in the detail table are deleted. When you
change a linked field in a record in a master table - the
corresponding field in the detail table gets changed to (in as
many records as needed).
Simple as that!
Stop. Note that creating a master-detail form with Delphi is not

enough to support referential integrity features on two tables.
Even though we can use methods described here to display two
tables in a parent-child relation; if those two tables are not
linked (one-to-many) within MS Access - cascading updates and
deletes won't take place if you try to delete or update the
"master" record.
ADO Shaping
Shaped recordsets are an alternative to master-detail
relationships. Beginning with ADO 2.0, this method is available.
Shaped recordsets allow the developer to retrieve data in a
hierarchical fashion. The shaped recordset adds a special "field"
that is actually a recordset unto itself. Essentially, data shaping
gives you the ability to build hierarchical recordsets. For
instance, a typical hierarchical recordset might consist of a

parent recordset with several fields, one of which might be

another recordset.
For an example of the SHAPE command take a look at the

shapedemo project that shiped with Delphi (in the Demos\Ado
directory). You must specify the shaping provider in your
connection string, by adding Provider=MSDataShape; to the
beginning.
SHAPE {select * from customer}

APPEND ({select * from orders} AS Orders
RELATE CustNo TO CustNo)
Although it takes some time to master the SHAPE command

that's used to create these queries, it can result in significantly
smaller resultsets. Data shaping reduces the amount of traffic
crossing a network, provides more flexibility when using
aggregate functions, and reduces overhead when interfacing
with leading-edge tools like XML.
To the next chapter

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group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a
complex whole'. You can use the particle to represent a cannonball being
shot out of a cannon - in trajectory games.

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Subjects RTL reference|Glossary|Tips|FREE App/VCL|Best'O'Net|Books|Link To
ESSENTIALS
Delphi Database Programming Course
Free online database programming course for beginner Delphi
· A Beginner’s Guide to developers. Focus on ADO techniques.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi About the Course: Related Resources
• A Beginners Guide To
ADO DB programming Delphi Programming
This free online course is perfect for Delphi
· Delphi for .NET database beginners as well as for those who want
• BOOK: Advanced Delphi
a broad overview of the art of database
· Free code APPs & Developer's Guide to ADO
programming with Delphi. Developers will learn
• Before you buy ADO VCL
VCL how to design, develop and test a database
• More ADO articles
application using ADO with Delphi. This course • Full (free) code apps and
· A-Z Site Index focuses on the most common uses of ADO in a components
Delphi application: Connecting to a database using • More tutorials and articles
BUYER'S GUIDE TADOConnection, work with Tables and Queries,
handle database exception, create reports, etc. From Other Guides
What's New and Hot • About Databases
Prerequisites:
Readers should have at a working knowledge of
the Windows operating system, as well as some • AdoAnywhere
Beginners Here decent level of Delphi Programming knowledge
base. New developers should first explore A
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Beginner's Guide to Delphi Programming
Database
Distrubuted comp. Chapters:
The chapters of this course are being created and updated dynamically on
Game Programming this site. Chapters (for now) include:
Graphics
CHAPTER 1:
Internet/Intranet Fundamentals of Database Development (with Delphi)
Mathematics Delphi as the database programming tool, Data Access with Delphi...just a few
words, Building a new MS Access database.
Multimedia Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

Delphi Pascal/IDE
CHAPTER 2:
Screen saver dev. Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO?
Connecting to a database. What is the BDE? What is ADO? How to connect to an
VCL Using
Access database - the UDL file? Looking forward: the smallest ADO example.
VCL Write/Enhance Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
Web Services
CHAPTER 3:
Windows/Shell/API Pictures inside a database
Kylix (D on Linux) Displaying images (BMP, JPEG, ...) inside an Access database with ADO and Delphi.
Coding standards
CHAPTER 4:
Books/Publications Data browsing and navigation
Building a data browsing form - linking data components. Navigating through a
Dev. Utilities recordset with a DBNavigator.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
CHAPTER 5:
Humor and Fun Behind data in datasets
What is the state of data? Iterating through a recordset, bookmarking and reading
Icons and Glyphs the data from a database table.
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
CHAPTER 6:
VCL & Tools Data modifications
Learn how to add, insert and delete records from a database table.
Subject Library
CHAPTER 7:
Queries with ADO
All articles on this Take a look at how you can take advantage of the TADOQuery component to boost
topic your ADO-Delphi productivity.
Stay up-to-date! CHAPTER 8:

Subscribe to our Data filtering
newsletter. Using Filters to narrow the scope of data that is presented to the user.
Enter Email Go! Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!
Advertising CHAPTER 9:
> Free Credit Report Searching for data
> Free Psychics Walking through various methods of data seeking and locating while developing
ADO based Delphi database applications.
CHAPTER 10:
ADO Cursors
How ADO uses cursors as a storage and access mechanism, and what you should
do to choose the best cursor for your Delphi ADO application.
CHAPTER 11:
From Paradox to Access with ADO and Delphi

Focusing on the TADOCommand components and using the SQL DDL language to
help porting your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access.
CHAPTER 12:
Master detail relationships
How to use master-detail database relationships, with ADO and Delphi, to deal
effectively with the problem of joining two database tables to present information.
CHAPTER 13:
How to create an MS Access database without the MS Access. How to create a
table, add an index to an existing table, how to join two tables and set up
referential integrity. No MS Access, only Pure Delphi code.
CHAPTER 14:
Introducing the TDBChart component by integrating some basic charts into a
Delphi ADO based application to quickly make graphs directly for the data in
recordsets without requiring any code.
CHAPTER 15:
Lookup!
See how to use lookup fields in Delphi to achieve faster, better and safer data
editing. Also, find how to create a new field for a dataset and discuss some of the
key lookup properties. Plus, take a look at how to place a combo box inside a
DBGrid.
CHAPTER 16:
Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi
While working in a database application you change data in a database, the
database becomes fragmented and uses more disk space than is necessary.
Periodically, you can compact your database to defragment the database file. This
article shows how to use JRO from Delphi in order to compact an Access database
from code.
CHAPTER 17:
How to use QuickReport set of components to create database reports with Delphi.
See how to produce database output with text, images, charts and memos - quickly
and easily.
CHAPTER 18:
Data Modules
How to use the TDataModule class - central location for collecting and
encapsulating DataSet and DataSource objects, their properties, events and code.
CHAPTER 19:

development. Find out about global exception handling and dataset specific error
events. See how to write an error logging procedure.
CHAPTER 20:
How to export your data to HTML using Delphi and ADO. This is the first step in
publishing your database on the Internet - see how to create a static HTML page
from an ADO query.
CHAPTER 21:
How to import Active Data Objects (ADO) type-libraries in Delphi 3 and 4 to create
a wrapper around components that encapsulate the functionality of ADO objects,
properties and methods.
CHAPTER 22:
How many times have you wanted to insert, delete or update a lot of records
collectively wanting that either all of them get executed or if there is an error then
none is executed at all? This article will show you how to post or undo a series of
changes made to the source data in a single call.
CHAPTER 23:
It is time to make your Delphi ADO database application available for others to run.
Once you have created a Delphi ADO based solution, the final step is to successfully
CHAPTER 24:
Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real Problems - Real Solutions
In real world situations, really doing database programming is much more complex
than writing about. This chapter points to some great Delphi Programming Forum
threads initiated by this Course - discussions that solve problems on the field.
CHAPTER 25:
Collection of frequently asked questions, answers, tips and tricks about ADO
programming.
CHAPTER 26:
Quiz: Delphi ADO Programming - DB/26
What would it look like: Who Wants to be a Delphi ADO Database Programming
Guru - the trivia game.

Before this course started, there was an online poll asking for you to decide: what type of
data access mechanism are you most interested in. After more than 9000 votes it seems
that most of you are primarily interested in ADO/MS Access approach. From the fifth version
Delphi supports ADO with ADOExpress. AdoExpress components are available with the
Enterprise version of Delphi 5 and can be bought by the owners oh the Professional version.
Prior to version 5 Delphi does not support ADO. In order to participate in this course you'll
have to get your hands on AdoExpress or some other ADO enabled component set. Some of
the third-party ADO data-components can be found here: ADO Delphi VCL components. Most
of the techniques that are to be addressed in the following chapters to this course should be
easily translated and used with Paradox/dBase or Interbase users.
Those are the poll results ("What approach would you like to learn?"):
. ADO/MSAccess 4625 votes (51%)
. Paradox - BDE 167 votes (2%)
. dBase - BDE 66 votes (1%)
. Interbase 4227 votes (47%)
Get informed when the next chapter of this course becomes available online:
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Page 1: Delphi, ADOX and ADOExpress against MS Access.
Chapter 11 of this course (Free • Page 2: Create.Database
Delphi Database Course for Join the Discussion
ADO DB programming Beginners - focus on ADO
· Delphi for .NET techniques) featured the to this chapter of the free Delphi
ADOCommand component which is database Programming Course"
· Free code APPs & most often used for executing data Discuss!
VCL definition language (DDL) SQL
commands. We've presented a way Related Resources
· A-Z Site Index of porting your existing • free DB Course.TOC
Paradox/BDE tables to MS Access. • Queries with ADO
BUYER'S GUIDE However few questions have stayed • SQL with Delphi
unanswered: how to create an • more Database articles
empty Access database, how to add
What's New and Hot
an index to an existing table, how to join two tables with
Top Picks-Tool/VCL referential integrity, ....
Beginners Here Many of the attendees of this course have complained that they
do not have MS Access installed on their computer - and are
COM/OLE/ActiveX unable to create a sample database (aboutdelphi.mdb) that is
Database presented in the first chapter and used through this course.
Distrubuted comp.
In this chapter, we'll again focus on the TADOCommand and the

Game Programming ADOX to see how set up an empty MS Access database from
"nothing".
Graphics
Internet/Intranet ADOX
As stated in the mentioned chapter, ADO Extensions for Data
Mathematics
Definition Language and Security is an extension to the ADO
Multimedia objects and programming model. ADOX gives developers a rich
set of tools for gaining access to the structure, security model,
Delphi Pascal/IDE
and procedures stored in a database.
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using Even though ADOX is part of ADO, Delphi does not wrap it inside
ADOExpress. To use ADOX with Delphi, you should establish a
VCL Write/Enhance reference to the ADOX type library. The description of the ADOX
library is "Microsoft ADO Ext. for DDL and Security." The ADOX
Web Services
library file name is Msadox.dll. You'll have to import the ADOX
Windows/Shell/API library into the IDE.
Kylix (D on Linux)
To use ADOX in Delphi, you should establish a reference to the
ADOX type library.
Coding standards 1. Select Project | Import Type Library
Books/Publications 2. Choose "Microsoft ADO Ext 2.x for DDL and Security (Version
2.x)"
Dev. Utilities 3a. Change "TTable" to "TADOXTable"
FAQs/Tips/Tricks 3b. Change "TColumn" to "TADOXColumn"
3c. Change "TIndex" to "TADOXIndex"
Free Code Projects 3d. Change "TKey" to "TADOXKey"
3e. Change "TGroup" to "TADOXGroup"
Humor and Fun
3f. Change "TUser" to "TADOXUser"
Icons and Glyphs 3g. Change "TCatalog" to "TADOXCatalog"
4. Press Install button (rebuilding packages)
Jobs and Offers 5. Press OK once and Yes twice
Training/CD/Video 6. File | Close All | Yes
VCL & Tools

This process creates a ADOX_TLB.pas unit and places its name in
the uses clause of the current project. The process also places 7
Subject Library new components on the ActiveX page of the component palette.
It is very important to change the class names as described in
step 3. If you omit that part Delphi will complain that class
All articles on this TTable is already defined - this is because the VCL already has
the BDE version of TTable component.
topic
aboutdelphi.mdb
Before we move on, you should recall that our sample
aboutdelphi.mdb database has three tables: Application, Authors
and Types. Both Authors and Types are child tables to
Applications. Both Authors and Types have a primary index.

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Page 2: The Delphi Project to create a new MS Access database, add
· A Beginner’s Guide to tables, create indexes, set referential integrity.
Delphi Programming
ADO DB programming The Delphi Project • Page 1: ADO + ADOX
Our task is to
· Delphi for .NET Printer friendly version
have Delphi
· Free code APPs & do all the Join the Discussion
work. We
VCL "Post your views and comments
want to to this chapter of the free Delphi
· A-Z Site Index create a new database Programming Course"
database Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE from code,
add all three Related Resources
tables from • free DB Course.TOC
What's New and Hot code, add indexes from code and even set up a • Queries with ADO
referential integrity between those tables - • SQL with Delphi
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
again from code. • more Database articles
Beginners Here
As usual, have an empty Delphi form. Add two
COM/OLE/ActiveX button component. Add a TADOConnection, TADOCommand. We'll use
TADOCommand with a DDL language to create and link tables. Add a
Database
TADOXCatalog component (ActiveX page). The TADOXCatalog will do the
Distrubuted comp. trick of creating a new database. Let the name of the first button be
btnNewDatabase (caption: 'Create database'), the second one should be
Game Programming called btnAddTables (caption: 'Create and link tables'). All the other
Graphics components should have the default name.
In this chapter we'll link those components from code. Therefore, you do
Internet/Intranet not need to set up a ConnectionString for the ADOConnection component
Mathematics and the Connection property for the ADOCOmmand component now.

Multimedia New...Database
Before we move on to creating tables and linking them we have to create a
Delphi Pascal/IDE
new (empty) database. This is the code:
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using procedure TForm1.btnNewDatabaseClick(Sender: TObject);
VCL Write/Enhance var
DataSource : string;
Web Services
dbName : string;
Windows/Shell/API begin
Kylix (D on Linux) dbName:='c:\aboutdelphi.mdb';
DataSource :=
Coding standards
'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' +
Books/Publications ';Data Source=' + dbName +
Dev. Utilities ';Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=4';
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ADOXCatalog1.Create1(DataSource);
Free Code Projects end;
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Would you belive - simple as that. Obviously the ADOXCatalog has a
Jobs and Offers method called Create1 that creates a new database. Pretty unusual since
Training/CD/Video we've accustomed that Create methods are used to create an object from a
class. The ADOXCatalog really has a Create method which has nothing in
VCL & Tools common to Create1.
Subject Library The variable DataSource looks pretty much like a standard connection string
for the TADOConnection component. There is only one addition, the Jet
OLEDB:Engine Type=X part. Engine type 4 is used to create an MS Access
All articles on this 97 database, type 5 is for MS Access 2000.
topic
Note that the above code does not check for the existance of the
c:\aboutdelphi.mdb database. If you run this code twice it will complain that
Stay up-to-date! the databae already exists.
Subscribe to our
newsletter. Add table, create index, set referential integrity
Enter Email Go! The next step is to create all tables (three of them), add indexes, and
create referential integrity. Even though we could use ADOX, that is,
TADOXTable, TADOXKey, etc. I'm somehow more familiar with the
Advertising
(standard) DDL language and the TADOCommand component. Back in the
chapter 11 of this course we discussed database tables porting issues. This
> Free Psychics time we'll create tables from nothing.
The following peaces of code are to be placed inside the button's
btnAddTables OnClick even handler, I'll slice the code and add some
explanations in between.
First, we need to connect to the newly created database with the

TADOConnection component. Since we've left the ADOCommand
unattached to ADOConnection - we'll link them from code (this should be
obvious by now):

procedure TForm1.btnAddTablesClick(Sender: TObject);

var
DataSource : string;
cs : string;
begin
DataSource :=
'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0'+
';Data Source=c:\aboutdelphi.mdb'+
';Persist Security Info=False';
ADOConnection1.ConnectionString := DataSource;
ADOConnection1.LoginPrompt := False;
ADOCommand1.Connection := ADOConnection1;
...
Second, we create both Types and Authors tables, the structures are given
in the first chapter. To build a new table with DDL by using the Jet SQL, we
use the CREATE TABLE statement by providing it the name the table, name
the fields, and fiedl type definitions. Then, the Execute method of the
ADOCommand component is used.
...
cs:='CREATE TABLE Types (typename TEXT(50))';
ADOCommand1.CommandText := cs;
ADOCommand1.Execute;
cs:='CREATE TABLE Authors (' +

'authorname TEXT(50),' +
'email TEXT(50),' +
'web TEXT(50))';
...
Next, we add indexes to those two tables. When you apply an index to a
table, you are specifying a certain arrangement of the data so that it can be
accessed more quickly. To build an index on a table, you must name the
index, name the table to build the index on, name the field or fields within
the table to use, and name the options you want to use. You use the
CREATE INDEX statement to build the index. There are four main options
that you can use with an index: PRIMARY, DISALLOW NULL, IGNORE NULL,
and UNIQUE. The PRIMARY option designates the index as the primary key
for the table.

...
cs:='CREATE INDEX idxPrimary '+
'ON Types (typename) WITH PRIMARY';
cs:='CREATE INDEX idxPrimary '+

'ON Authors (authorname) WITH PRIMARY';
...
Finally, we add the last table. Applications table is linked with both Types
and Authors in a master detail relationship. Back in the last chapter we
were discussing one-to-many relationships that define the following: for
every record in the master table, there are one or more related records in
the child table. In our case, one Author (Authors table) can post more
Applications; and the Application can be of some type.
When defining the relationships between tables, we use the CONSTRAINT
declarations at the field level. This means that the constraints are defined
within a CREATE TABLE statement.
...
cs:='CREATE TABLE Applications ('+
' Name TEXT(50),'+
' Description TEXT(50),'+
' Author TEXT(50) CONSTRAINT idxauthor '+
'REFERENCES Authors (authorname),'+
' Type TEXT(50) CONSTRAINT idxtype '+
'REFERENCES Types (typename),'+
' Size FLOAT,'+
' Cost CURRENCY,'+
' DateUpl DATETIME,'+
' Picture LONGBINARY)';
end;//btnAddTablesClick
That's it. Now run the project, click the btnNewDatabase button, click the
btnAddTables button and you have a new (empty) aboutdelphi.mdb
database in the root of the C disk. If you have MS Access installed on your
system you can open this database with it and check that all thje tables are
here and in the Relationships window all the tables are linked.
All that using ADOX

I've told you that we could use ADOX, that is, TADOXTable, TADOXKey, etc.
After a few days of convincing ADOX to understand what I want to do with
it, I've finally managed to get the code working. However, since you already
have the database created using DDL, and I'm not going to reinvent the
wheel here, here's the link to Delphi Pascal code that uses ADOX to create
an Access database (along with referential integrity, indexex, etc...) This
code demonstrates some of the ways ADOX can be used with Object Pascal,
as well as pointing out some traps and pitfalls.
Create an Access database with ADOX
To the next chapter

If you need any kind of help so far, please post to the Delphi Programming
Forum where all the questions are answered and beginners are treated as
experts.
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>> Charting with Databases
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Messing with the creation process of a form object, or how to change the default style of a
window when it gets created to suit your particular needs.
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Charting with Databases - DB Course/Chapter 14 - Page 1/2
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ESSENTIALS
Page 1: Introducing the TDBChart.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi • Page 2: Connect ... Graph
In most modern database
ADO DB programming applications some kind of graphical
Join the Discussion
data representation is preferable or
· Delphi for .NET even required. For such purposes "Post your views and comments
· Free code APPs & Delphi includes several data aware database Programming Course"
components: DBImage, DBChart, Discuss!
VCL
DecisionChart, etc. The DBImage is
· A-Z Site Index an extension to an Image Related Resources
component that displays a picture • free DB Course.TOC
BUYER'S GUIDE inside a BLOB field. Chapter 3 of this • Coloring DBGrid
database course discussed • Using Data Controls
displaying images (BMP, JPEG, etc.)
What's New and Hot
inside an Access database with ADO
Top Picks-Tool/VCL and Delphi. The DBChart is a data Elsewhere on the Web
aware graphic version of the TChart • Tee Chart
component.
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX Our goal in this chapter is to introduce the TDBChart by
Database showing you how to integrate some basic charts into your
Delphi ADO based application.
Distrubuted comp.
TeeChart

Game Programming The DBChart component is a powerful tool for creating database
charts and graphs. It is not only powerful, but also complex. We
Graphics
wont be exploring all of its properties and methods, so you'll
Internet/Intranet have to experiment with it to discover all that it is capable of and
how it can best suite your needs. By using the DBChart with the
Mathematics TeeChart charting engine you can quickly make graphs directly
Multimedia for the data in datasets without requiring any code. TDBChart
connects to any Delphi DataSource. ADO recordsets are natively
Delphi Pascal/IDE supported. No additional code is required - or just a little as
Screen saver dev. you'll see. The Chart editor will guide you through the steps to
connect to your data - you don't even need to go to the Object
VCL Using Inspector.
VCL Write/Enhance Runtime TeeChart libraries are included as part of Delphi
Professional and Enterprise versions. TChart is also integrated
Web Services with QuickReport with a custom TChart component on the
QuickReport palette. Delphi Enterprise includes a DecisionChart
Windows/Shell/API
control in the Decision Cube page of the Component palette.
Kylix (D on Linux)
Let's chart! - Prepare
Coding standards Our task will be to create a simple Delphi form with a chart filled
with values from a database query. To follow along, create a
Books/Publications Delphi form as follows:
Dev. Utilities
1. Start a a new Delphi Application - one blank form is created
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
by default.
Free Code Projects 2. Place the next set of components on the form:
ADOConnection, ADOQuery, DataSource, DBGrid and a DBChart.
Humor and Fun 3. Use the Object Inspector to connect ADOQuery with
Icons and Glyphs ADOConnection, DBGrid with DataSource with ADOQuery.
4. Set up a link with our demo database (aboutdelphi.mdb) by
Jobs and Offers using the ConnectionString of the ADOConnection component.
Training/CD/Video 5. Select the ADOQuery component and assign the next string to
the SQL property:
VCL & Tools
SELECT TOP 5 customer.Company,
SUM(orders.itemstotal) AS SumItems,
Subject Library COUNT(orders.orderno) AS NumOrders
FROM customer, orders
WHERE customer.custno = orders.custno
All articles on this GROUP BY customer.Company
topic ORDER BY SUM(orders.itemstotal) DESC
This query uses two tables: orders and customer. Both tables
were imported from the (BDE/Paradox) DBDemos database to
our demo (MS Access) database back in the chapter 11. This
query results in a recordset with only 5 records. The first field is
the Company name, the second (SumItems) is a sum of all the
orders made by the company and the third field (NumOrders)
represents the number of orders that were made by the

Stay up-to-date! company. Note that those two tables are linked in a master-
Subscribe to our detail relationship.
newsletter.
Enter Email Go! 6. Create a persistent list of database fields. (To invoke the
Fields Editor double click the ADOQuery component. By default,
the list of fields is empty. Click Add to open a dialog box listing
Advertising
the fields retrieved by the query (Company, NumOrders,
SumItems). By default, all fields are selected. Select OK.) Even
> Free Psychics though you don't need a persistent set of fields to work with a
DBChart component - we'll create it now. The reasons will be
explained later.
7. Set ADOQuery.Active to True in the Object Inspector to see
the resulting set at design time.
The form should look something like:
Note that the DBChart is "empty". We have not connected the

recordset with the chart, yet.
Next page > Data Charts with no code - or just a little > Page
1, 2

>> Lookup!
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TOPIC.
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development.
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ESSENTIALS
Page 2: Connect, Set, Code ... Graph
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi • Page 1: Intro to TDBChart
Let's chart! - Connect
ADO DB programming In most cases, connecting a recordset with a
DBChart and setting various properties can be
· Delphi for .NET
done using the specific Chart editor. Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & "Post your views and comments
VCL Using the fields of a recordset for the source, to this chapter of the free Delphi
the chart becomes a dynamic display that is database Programming Course"
updated as the recordset if modified. You
have a wide variety of chart type options to Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE choose from and all of the parameters of the
display can be controlled within an
• Coloring DBGrid
application.
What's New and Hot • Using Data Controls
Top Picks-Tool/VCL In general, you fill a chart with data
designated in one or more series; each series Elsewhere on the Web
Beginners Here consists of categories and values. For • Tee Chart
example, to fill a chart with data about
COM/OLE/ActiveX customer orders, you could add a series that
Database charts customer names as the categories and order amounts as the
values.
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming The Chart editor is a one stop shop for all Chart and Series specific
parameters. Once you have the DBChart component on a form, you should
Graphics
create one or more series. To accomplish this, open the Chart Component
Internet/Intranet Editor: select the component, right-click it, and choose the Edit Chart
menu item. Use the Chart tab to define all you general chart parameters.
Mathematics Select the Series tab and you may choose from your list of series to

Multimedia modify series specific features.
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs We'll add two chart series. One that presents the sum of all the orders per
Jobs and Offers company and second that will plot the total number of orders.
Training/CD/Video
Chart tab
VCL & Tools To add a data series press the Add button in the Series
tab section of the Chart page. Now simply choose the
graph you want to add from Gallery - we'll use the
Subject Library Horizontal Bar. Once we've added the Series to the Chart
some random values are displayed, in the Chart at
design-time, to easily follow any changes you are
All articles on this making.
topic Note that a chart can have multiple series; if they are all of the same type
they will integrate better, as in the case of multiple bars.
Now add a second series - again use the Horizontal Bar.
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our Series tab
newsletter. Selecting the Series tab (or double clicking the desired Series) allows you
Enter Email Go! to edit your Series. Select Series1. Select the DataSource tab. Select
"Dataset" from the drop down list. Select AdoQuery1 for the dataset. The
Advertising next set of choices determine the way how the data form the datasource
> Free Credit Report will appear on the graph (different kinds of charts have different properties
and methods). The exact contents of the page will change depending on
> Free Psychics
the Series type you have chosen. The Bar property determines what value
each bar is representing - pick SumItems from the list. The Labels
property is used to draw labels for each of the bars in the graph. Note that
Lables drop down does not list the Company field from the recordset!

BUG! When working with ADO recordset the Chart Editor does not list
fields of the WideString type (for the XLabels property). This bug is
present in TeeChart v4.xx STANDARD that ships with Delphi 5 and Delphi
6. This is what I got as a reply from the authors of the TeeChart:
"Well, all Delphi versions use the same TeeChart version (v4 STANDARD, I
think D4-D6 and CB4-CB5 use the same version). We discovered this bug
only when Delphi 5 was released. We fixed it, but not for TeeChart v4
STANDARD version (only for new v5 PRO version).
The good news is user can still connect ADOQuery to specific series at
runtime (via code):"
Series1.DataSource := ADOQuery1;
Series1.XLabelsSource := ADOQuery1WideStringField1.FieldName;
Series1.XValues.ValueSource := ADOQuery1FloatField1.FieldName;
Series1.YValues.ValueSource := ''; { no YValues }
Series1.CheckDataSource;
I believe we fixed it in TeeChart v5.01 (v5.00) release...

Upgrading to the 5.01 release is not free."
Let's chart! - Code

Ok, let's see what we can do about this bug. It seems that all the
properties of the chart can be set with the Chart Editor except those
related to recordset. We'll simply (as suggested) set all from code. Add the
next code to the form's OnCreate even handler:

ADOQuery1.Close;
DBChart1.Legend.Visible:=False;
with DBChart1.SeriesList.Series[0] do begin
DataSource := ADOQuery1;
XLabelsSource := ADOQuery1Company.FieldName;
XValues.ValueSource := ADOQuery1SumItems.FieldName;
YValues.ValueSource := '';
Marks.Style := smsXValue;
CheckDataSource;
end; //with
with DBChart1.SeriesList.Series[1] do begin
DataSource := ADOQuery1;
XLabelsSource := '';
XValues.ValueSource := ADOQuery1NumOrders.FieldName;
YValues.ValueSource := '';
CheckDataSource;
end; //with
ADOQuery1.Open;
Of course, I suggest you to browse through the Help system in order to

find out about the commands, properties and methods used in this code.
Minor adjustments and notes

If you run the application, you'll notice that the chart is actually three-
dimensional - set View3D to False - to display in two dimensions. You can
prevent a legend from appearing in your chart by setting its Legend.Visible
to False. The default value for Title is 'TDBChart' - change it as you like.
Chart uses the current recordset order (ORDER BY keyword in the SQL
statement) to populate Series points. This order can be overridden setting
the Series values Order property.

That's it. It's not to easy, it's not to hard. Explore the Project's Code to
find and learn more.
To the next chapter

experts.
First page > Introducing the TDBChart component > Page 1, 2

>> Lookup!
More Delphi
· NEXT ARTICLE: Screen Shuffling with Delphi.
Delphi code that divides the current desktop into blocks and then swaps the blocks. It
includes an option that lets you adjust the shuffling speed, and the size of the blocks.
Great intro to sliding puzzle game or to screen saver development.

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Lookup! - DB Course/Chapter 15 - Page 1/4
Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Lookup!
Page 1: Why and when to use lookup fields; Creating a
· A Beginner’s Guide to data entry form
Delphi Programming
Back in the master-detail • Page 2: New...lookup
ADO DB programming • Page 3: DBLookupCombo
relationships chapter of this course,
• Page 4: DBGrid.PickList
· Delphi for .NET we've seen that in most cases one
database table is related to the data Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & in one or more other tables. "Post your views and comments
Consider the next example. In our database Programming Course"
sample aboutdelphi.mdb database,
BUYER'S GUIDE Applications table lists Delphi Related Resources
applications uploaded by the visitors • free DB Course.TOC
to this site. Among other fields, the • Coloring the DBGrid
What's New and Hot Author and Type fields are linked • Using Data Controls
with the corresponding fields in the • more Database articles
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Authors and Types tables. Only
values from the AuthorName field in
Beginners Here the Authors table can appear in the Author field of the
Applications table. The same rule is applied to the TypeName
COM/OLE/ActiveX
field (Types table) and the Type field (Applications table).
Database Another situation: consider an application data entry form whose
fields are connected to the Applications table. Let's say that this
Distrubuted comp.
table has only one information related to the author of the
application, an AuthorNo field corresponding to authors unique

Game Programming number. The Authors table, on the other hand, contains an
AuthorNo field corresponding to authors UN, and also contains
Graphics additional information, such as the authors name, email and a
Internet/Intranet web page. It would be convenient if the data entry form enabled
a user to select the author by its name (and email) instead by its
Mathematics UN.
Multimedia
Lookup!
Delphi Pascal/IDE
If you have a Delphi form with data controls designed to allow
Screen saver dev. editing the Applications table, you have to make sure that only
TypeName values from the Types table can be applied to the
VCL Using Types field of the Application table. You also have to make sure
VCL Write/Enhance that only AuthorName values from the Authors table can be
applied to the Author field of the Application table. The best way
Web Services to make this sure is to provide users with a string list to select
Windows/Shell/API the values from rather than having them enter values manually.
Kylix (D on Linux) Both TDBLookupListBox and TDBLookupComboBox are data-

aware controls that enable us to choose a value from another
Coding standards table or from a predefined list of values. This pair of components
are so similar that it makes sense to discuss only one of them.
Books/Publications
Both components are designed to list items from either a dataset
Dev. Utilities or from a secondary datasource. We'll be looking at the
TDBLookupComboBox component.
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects In this chapter, we'll see how to use lookup fields in
Delphi to achieve faster, better and safer data editing.
Humor and Fun
We'll also see how to create a new field for a dataset and
Icons and Glyphs discuss some of the key lookup properties. Plus, take a
look at how to place a combo box inside a DBGrid.
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video There are three ways you can set a lookup field in Delphi.
VCL & Tools
1. If you have a data form where all editings are done in a
DBGrid, the best is to create a new (lookup) field for the dataset.
Subject Library 2. If a form hosts a set of data controls (DBEdit, DBComboBox,
etc.), it makes sense to just use DBLookupComboBox without
creating a new field.
All articles on this 3. The last one is to use columns of a DBGrid with its PickList
topic property, again without creating a new field. This approach is not
a true lookup approach but you'll see that it can act as one. The
PickList list values that the user can select for the field value -
just like a standard DBComboBox - but inside a DBGrid. We'll
make it to list values from another dataset, thus defining sa
lookup.
We'll discuss each of them, but we first need to build a data

entry form.

Stay up-to-date!
Creating a data entry form
Subscribe to our
Creating a data editing form by hand is not to much complicated,
newsletter.
as we already know. When developing database applications with
Enter Email Go! Delphi (and ADO), most of the work is done inside the IDE by
simply connecting various components together, thus having to
Advertising write no code. A typical data browsing/editing form presents a
> Free Credit Report database table inside a DBGrid. Another way is to add several
> Free Psychics data aware controls to a form and link them to the data source.
We'll place both a DBGrid and several data aware controls.
Have a new Delphi project with an empty form, then add the
next set of components: one ADOConnection, one DataSource
and two ADOTables.
Use the Object Inspector and connect all those components in
the following way:
First set the name of the ADOConnection component to be
ADOConnection. Use ConnectionString property to link to our
aboutdelphi.mdb database (LoginPrompt = False). Set
ADOTable1.Name = ApplicationTable, ADOTable2.Name =
AuthorsTable. Set DataSource1.Name = ApplicationsSource. Set
the Connection property of all ADOTable components to point to
ADOConnection component. Set ApplicationSource.DataSet =
ApplicationsTable. Finally, set ApplicationTable.Table =
Applications, AuthorsTable.Table = Authors. Finally, add a
DBGrid (DBGrid1) to a form and Connect it with
ApplicationsSource.
Here is a list of relevant values, as can be seen in the dfm file for
a form.
object ApplicationsTable: TADOTable

Connection = ADOConnection
TableName = 'Applications'
end
object AuthorsTable: TADOTable
Connection = ADOConnection
TableName = 'Authors'
end
object ApplicationsSource: TDataSource
DataSet = ApplicationsTable
end
object DBGrid1: TDBGrid
DataSource = ApplicationsSource
end

Double click the Applications table (Fields editor) and create a

persistent set of field objects - pick Name, Description, Type,
Size and Author.
All set up (at least for now). It's time to see the first approach to
lookup fields.
Next page > New...lookup field > Page 1, 2, 3, 4

>> Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi -
DB/16
More Delphi
TOPIC.
· NEXT ARTICLE: NO GUI Delphi applications.
Creating a console mode application with Delphi; a text-mode program that
runs without a graphical interface. Even more: see how to capture the output
of a console application in a GUI Delphi program.
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Delphi Programming

hundreds of sites
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ESSENTIALS
Lookup!
Page 2: New...lookup field.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi • Page 1: On lookup fields
New ... lookup field
ADO DB programming To crete a new field object you have to • Page 3: DBLookupCombo
invoke the Fields editor for a dataset. • Page 4: DBGrid.PickList
· Delphi for .NET
Double click the ApplicationsTable and
Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & right click it to have a pop up menu
displayed. Pick "New field..."

• Coloring the DBGrid
What's New and Hot • Using Data Controls
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Database
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics

Internet/Intranet The idea is to set the value for the Author field by picking it's email. I
know this does not make much sense, but it will bring the lookup
Mathematics idea closer. In the New field form fill the boxes as on the picture
Multimedia below. We create a new AEmail field for the ApplicationTable dataset.
As you can see from the picture, there are few very important
Delphi Pascal/IDE properties you have to understand prior to working with lookup
Screen saver dev. fields.
VCL Using
.Field Name is the name of the lookup field. Set it to AEmail.
VCL Write/Enhance .Dataset identifies the dataset that contains lookup values (Authors).
.KeyFields is a field in the Applications dataset we are setting through
Web Services a lookup.
Windows/Shell/API .Lookup Keys is a field in the lookup dataset (Authors) to match
against the KeyFields.
Kylix (D on Linux) .ResultField is a field in the lookup dataset to return as the value of
the lookup field you are creating.
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic
That's it. No code required. Start your project (or set Active property
for both tables to True) and you can see that DBGrid, in the AName
Stay up-to-date! fields column, has a combo box with author emails. As you pick an
Subscribe to our email the corresponding author field changes. We are looking up an
newsletter. authors email to change the author. Note that AEMail is a read-only
Go!
field.
Enter Email
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> Free Psychics

Note: the combo box in the cell of a DBGrid has nothing with the
PickList property of Grid's column. This will be explained later in this
chapter.
Next page > The DBLookupComboBox looks up > Page 1, 2, 3, 4

>> Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi - DB/16
More Delphi
Creating a console mode application with Delphi; a text-mode program that runs
without a graphical interface. Even more: see how to capture the output of a
console application in a GUI Delphi program.
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| Help

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hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
Lookup!
Page 3: The DBLookupComboBox and DBLookuplistBox
Lookup with DBLookupComboBox • Page 1: On lookup fields
As stated above, when your data entry • Page 2: New...lookup
ADO DB programming form is made of more data controls • Page 4: DBGrid.PickList
· Delphi for .NET (DBEdit, DBComboBox, etc.) it makes

Join the Discussion
sense to just use DBLookupComboBox
· Free code APPs & without creating a new field.
For the start, use dragging from the Fields Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index editor to add data controls to a form. Drag
Related Resources
Name, Author, Type and Description. This
BUYER'S GUIDE will add 4 DBEdit components and 4 Label • free DB Course.TOC
• Coloring the DBGrid
components. At this point, remove the
• Using Data Controls
What's New and Hot DBEdit connected with the Author field of
the Applications table and replace it with a
Top Picks-Tool/VCL DBLookupComboBox. Name it
ApplicationsAuthorLookup. We'll also need another DataSource
Beginners Here component. Drop one on the form, change the name to AuthorsSource
and link it to AuthorsTable.
COM/OLE/ActiveX Finally, we need to set the lookup combo box to work properly. Use
Database Object Inspector and set the following:
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet

Mathematics object ApplicationsAuthorLookup: TDBLookupComboBox

Multimedia DataSource = ApplicationsSource
DataField = 'Author'
Delphi Pascal/IDE
ListSource = AuthorsSource
Screen saver dev. KeyField = 'authorname'
VCL Using ListField = 'authorname;email'
end
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API These properties are key to the lookup connection:
Kylix (D on Linux)
. DataSource and DataField determine the main connection. The
Coding standards DatField is a field into which we insert the looked-up values.
. ListSource is the source of the lookup dataset.
Books/Publications . KeyField identifies the field in the ListSource that must match the
Dev. Utilities value of the DataField field.
. ListFields is the field (one or more) of the lookup dataset that are
FAQs/Tips/Tricks actually displayed in the combo. ListField can show more than one field.
Multiple field names should be separated by semicolons. You have to
Free Code Projects
set large enough value for the DropDownWidth (of a ComboBox) to
Humor and Fun really see multiple columns of data.
Icons and Glyphs
Just for practice, replace the Type's field DBEdit with DBLookComboBox
Jobs and Offers and set a lookup relation with the Types table. Note that you need one
more DataSource and one more ADO Table pointing to the Types table.
Training/CD/Video
Set the DataSource and DataField properties to the dataset and field
VCL & Tools where the selection will be written (Applications; Type). Set the
ListSource, KeyField and ListField properties to the lookup field from
which the list should be populated (Types; TypeName, TypeName).
Subject Library
Graphically, connections between tables, sources and ADOConnections
All articles on this can now be presented as:
topic
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our
newsletter.
Enter Email Go!
Advertising
> Free Psychics That's it. Again, no code required. When the user selects an item from
the combo box, an appropriate value of the KeyField field changes the
value of the DataField. At run time, the form looks like:

Note 1: When you want to display more than one field in a

LookupComboBox, as in the example above, you have to make sure
that all columns are visible. This is done by setting the DropDownWidth
property. However, you'll see that initially you have to set this to a very
large value which results in dropped list being too wide in most cases.
One workaround is to set the DisplayWidth of a particular Field shown in
a drop down list. The next code snippet, placed inside the OnCreate
event for the form, ensures that both author name and it's email are
displayed inside the drop down list.
AuthorsTable.FieldByName('authorname').DisplayWidth:=15;
AuthorsTable.FieldByName('email').DisplayWidth:=20;
Note 2 : If you drag AEmail field from a Field Editor to a form, Delphi
will connect it with a DBLookupComboBox automatically. Of course, key
lookup properties will look different since we don't need another data
source for this link to work - lookup field is already defined "inside" the
ApplicationsTable/Source.
Next page > DBGrid.Columns.PickList lookup up > Page 1, 2, 3, 4

More Delphi


without a graphical interface. Even more: see how to capture the output of a console
application in a GUI Delphi program.
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Help

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hundreds of sites
Spiegel, and more!
ESSENTIALS
Lookup!
Page 4: DBGrid.Columns.PickList as a lookup list.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi • Page 1: On lookup fields
Lookup inside a PickList of a
ADO DB programming DBGrid Column • Page 2: New...lookup
The last approach to having a lookup • Page 3: DBLookupCombo
· Delphi for .NET
values displayed inside a DBGrid is to • Project's CODE
· Free code APPs & use the PickList property of a DBGrid
Column object. You'll usually add Printer friendly version
VCL
Columns to a DBGird when you want to
· A-Z Site Index define how a column appears and how Join the Discussion
the data in the column is displayed. A "Post your views and comments
BUYER'S GUIDE customized grid enables you to to this chapter of the free Delphi
configure multiple columns to present
Discuss!
different views of the same dataset
What's New and Hot
(different column orders, different field Related Resources
Top Picks-Tool/VCL choices, and different column colors and • free DB Course.TOC
fonts, for example). • Coloring the DBGrid
Beginners Here • Using Data Controls
I will not discuss this topic briefly here. • more Database articles
COM/OLE/ActiveX Let's just see what are the steps to add
Database columns to a DBGrid.
1. Right-click the DBGgrid component. This pops up the Columns
Distrubuted comp. Editor.
2. Right-click the Columns Editor to invoke the context menu and
Game Programming
choose Add All Fields. This creates one column for each field in a
Graphics dataset and connects them - the FieldName property determines the

Internet/Intranet connection.
Mathematics
While you have the Columns Editor displayed, see that each column
Multimedia has a PickList property. We'll use this String List to fill a list of lookup
values. Take a look at the AEMail column, its FieldName points to a
Delphi Pascal/IDE
lookup field - therefore displaying a combo box inside a DBGrid as
Screen saver dev. we saw at the beginning of this article. However its PickList is empty.
What I want to show you here is how to fill that String List with
VCL Using values from another dataset at run time - without creating a new
VCL Write/Enhance lookup field. In general, a pick list column looks and works like a
lookup list, except that the drop-down list is populated with the list
Web Services of values in the column's PickList property instead of from a lookup
Windows/Shell/API table. The reason to show how to use PickList to mimic the lookup
list is just to show that the same task can be done in several ways
Kylix (D on Linux) when you have a great toll like Delphi.
Coding standards What we want to do is to fill a PickList with the values from another
dataset at run time - this time using Pascal code. We'll use the
Books/Publications
Form's OnCreate event.
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
Free Code Projects var AuthorsList:TStringList;
i:integer;
Humor and Fun
begin
Icons and Glyphs AuthorsList:=TStringList.Create;
Jobs and Offers try
AuthorsTable.First;
Training/CD/Video
AuthorsTable.DisableControls;
VCL & Tools while not AuthorsTable.EOF do begin
AuthorsList.Add(
AuthorsTable.FieldByName(
Subject Library
'authorname').AsString);
AuthorsTable.Next;
All articles on this end; //while
topic finally
//place the list it the correct column
for i:=0 to DBGrid1.Columns.Count-1 do begin
Stay up-to-date!
if DBGrid1.Columns[i].FieldName = 'Author'
Subscribe to our
newsletter. then begin
DBGrid1.Columns[i].PickList:=AuthorsList;
Enter Email Go!
Break;
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end;//if
> Free Credit Report end; //for
> Free Psychics AuthorsTable.EnableControls;
AuthorsList.Free;
end; //try
end;

The code simply fills the AuthorsList with the values of AuthorName,
by iterating through the Authors table. It then assigns the contents
of the AuthorsList to the PickList whose FiledName point to the
Author field. Since we can change the order of columns at design and
run time you have to make sure that the correct PickList get's the
values.
That's all for this chapter. Make sure you download code for this
project.
To the next chapter

First page > Why and when to use lookup fields; Creating a data
entry form > Page 1, 2, 3, 4

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Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi - DB Course/Chapter 16
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ESSENTIALS
Compacting an Access database with ADO and
While working in a database application you change data in a database,
Delphi Programming
the database becomes fragmented and uses more disk space than is
· Free course: Delphi necessary. Periodically, you can compact your database to defragment
the database file. This article shows how to use JRO from Delphi in
ADO DB programming order to compact an Access database from code.
· Delphi for .NET
· Free code APPs & Printer friendly version
Why compacting
VCL While you add and delete records from database
tables, your database becomes more and more Join the Discussion
· A-Z Site Index fragmented and uses disk space inefficiently. "Post your views and comments
Compacting a database makes a copy of the
BUYER'S GUIDE database Programming Course"
database, rearranging how the database file is Discuss!
stored on disk. The compacted database is usually
What's New and Hot smaller and often runs faster. Related Resources
This chapter of the free database course for • free DB Course.TOC
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Delphi beginners shows how to use JRO from • ADOX
Delphi in order to compact an Access database • DB Utilities
Beginners Here from code. • more Database articles
COM/OLE/ActiveX
JRO TLB Elsewhere on the Web
Database • JRO (Microsoft)
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet
Mathematics
Multimedia
Delphi Pascal/IDE

ADO does not directly expose a method for

Screen saver dev. compacting a database. By using Jet and
VCL Using Replication Objects (JRO), you can compact
databases, refresh data from the cache, and
VCL Write/Enhance create and maintain replicated databases. The
Web Services JRO exposes two objects, the JetEngine object
and the Replica object. The Replica object is
Windows/Shell/API used to manipulate replicated databases. We
Kylix (D on Linux) will not deal with database replications in this
chapter. By using the Jet Engine object we can
programmatically control compacting and
Coding standards refreshing data from the memory cache.
Books/Publications
As with ADOX, the JRO library must be
Dev. Utilities imported in Delphi, since it is not a part of the
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ADOExpress (or dbGo in D6). The description
of the ADOX library is "Microsoft Jet and
Free Code Projects Replication Objects 2.x Library (Version 2.x)". The JRO library file name is
Humor and Fun MSJRO.dll. We've already seen the steps needed to import a type library in
Delphi (ADOX). The same process should be repeated in this case. To import
Icons and Glyphs JRO in Delphi you need to open a new project and Select Project | Import Type
Jobs and Offers Library. In the dialog box choose "Microsoft Jet and Replication Objects 2.x
Library (Version 2.x)". Note that it will add two new classes, the TReplica and
Training/CD/Video TJetEngine. Press Install button to add JRO to a package or press Create unit to
just create a single interface unit. If you click Install, two new icons will appear
VCL & Tools
on the ActiveX tab (if you have left the default Palette page on the Dialog).
Subject Library Note: Delphi 6 users will not succeed in importing JRO type library. If you have
Delphi 6, while trying to install the library in a package, an error will pop up
indicating that ActiveConnection in the JRO_TLB file doesn't exist (along with
All articles on this some other errors). The problem lies in Delphi 6 TLB importer. There are two
topic options to overcome the problem: 1. Use Delphi 5 to import JRO an then install
it in Delphi 6. 2. Manually declare the missing ActiveConnection property and
change property declarations to make them writeable.
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our Compact Delphi Project
newsletter. It's time to see some code. Create a new Delphi application with one form. Add
Enter Email Go! two Edit controls and a Button. From the ActiveX component page pick
JetEngine. The first Edit should be renamed to edSource, the second one to
edDest. The button should be renamed to btnComapct. The JetEngine should be
Advertising renamed to JE. It should all look like:
> Free Psychics
The TJetEngine class has a CompactDatabase method. The method takes two

parameters: the ADO connection string for the source as well for the destination
database. CompactDatabase method compacts a database and gives you the
option of changing its version, password, collating order and encryption.
Encrypting a database makes it indecipherable by a utility program or word
processor. Encrypted databases can still be opened by Access or through Delphi
code. The proper way to protect a database is to set a password for it. Collation
order is used for string comparison in the database. Changing a database
version gives you the way to "upgrade" it.
In our form, the edSource is used to specify the database we want to compact.
The edDest specifies the destination database. Within the connection strings,
you specify various connection properties to determine how the source database
is opened and how the destination database is compacted. At a minimum, you
must use the Data Source property in each connection string to specify the path
and name of the database.
When you use the CompactDatabase method, you can't save the compacted
database to the same name as the original database. CompactDatabase also
requires that the destination database does not exist.
The next code (btnCompact OnClick event handler) is an example of the

CompactDatabase method:
procedure TForm1.btnCompactClick(Sender: TObject);

var
dbSrc : WideString;
dbDest : WideString;
const
SProvider = 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=';
begin
dbSrc := SProvider + edSource.Text;
dbDest := SProvider + edDest.Text;
if FileExists(edDest.Text) then
DeleteFile(edDest.Text);
JE.CompactDatabase(dbSrc,dbDest);
end;
Note that the above code presumes an Access 2000 database. Microsoft Jet
OLEDB 4.0 is the default data engine for Access 2000.
In many cases you'll want to have the same database name after the compact
operation. Since edSource and edDest can't be the same your code should
replace the original file with the compacted version. The next function takes
only one parameter - the name of the database you want to compact:

function DatabaseCompact
(const sdbName: WideString) : boolean;
var
JE : TJetEngine; //Jet Engine
sdbTemp : WideString; //TEMP database
sdbTempConn : WideString; //Connection string
const
SProvider = 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=';
begin
Result:=False;
sdbTemp := ExtractFileDir(sdbName) +
'TEMP' +
ExtractFileName(sdbName);
sdbTempConn := SProvider + sdbtemp;
if FileExists(sdbTemp) then
DeleteFile(sdbTemp);
JE:= TJetEngine.Create(Application);
try
try
JE.CompactDatabase(SProvider + sdbName, sdbTempConn);
DeleteFile(sdbName);
RenameFile(sdbTemp, sdbName);
except
on E:Exception do
ShowMessage(E.Message);
end;
finally
JE.FreeOnRelease;
Result:=True;
end;
end;
The DatabaseCompact receives a sdbName string parameter with the full name
of the database you want to compact. The function returns True if compact is
successful False otherwise. The sdbName is compacted in sdbTemp, the
sdbName is then deleted and sdbTemp renamed to sdbName. The
DatabaseCompact could be called as:
DatabaseCompact('C:\ADP\aboutdelphi.mdb');
The DatabaseCompact function is ideal to be called from within your Delphi ADO
application as an external application. It could also be written as a console
mode application that takes one command line parameter (or more) since it
requires no GUI.
To the next chapter

experts.

>> Database reports with Delphi and ADO - DB/17
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Messing with the creation process of a form object, or how to change the default style of a
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Database reports with Delphi and ADO - DB Course/Chapter 17
Delphi Programming

hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
How to use QuickReport set of components to create database
· A Beginner’s Guide to reports with Delphi. See how to produce database output with
Delphi Programming charts, images and memos - quickly and easily.

In programming (database) terminology Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET
reports are printed documents containing
· Free code APPs & data from a database. To generate reports Join the Discussion
with Delphi we generally use special "Post your views and comments
reporting tools. In most cases such tools are
· A-Z Site Index available from third-party developers. One Discuss!
set of components, QuickReport from
BUYER'S GUIDE QuSoft, comes with Delphi as a set of VCL Related Resources
components. • free DB Course.TOC

• QuickReport Tutorial
What's New and Hot • Printing from Delphi
In this chapter of the free database • VCL / Printing Tools
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
course, you'll see how to use • OLE Automation
QuickReport set of components to • Charting with Databases
Beginners Here create database reports with Delphi; • more Database articles
COM/OLE/ActiveX how to produce database output with
text, images, charts and memos - Elsewhere on the Web
Database quickly and easily. • Home of QuickReport
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet

Mathematics QuickReport is designed to let us

produce database reports as well
Multimedia as reports based on text files
Delphi Pascal/IDE and string lists. QuickReport lets
us create print previews where
Screen saver dev. the user can check the result of
VCL Using a printout without wasting paper,
and export data to other file formats, such as plain ASCII, comma
VCL Write/Enhance separated values (CSV), MS Excel XLS, Rich Text RTF and HTML. By
using the components on the QReport page of the Component palette,
Web Services
you can visually build banded reports to present and summarize the
Windows/Shell/API information in your database tables and queries. You can add summaries
to group headers or footers to analyze the data based on grouping
Kylix (D on Linux)
criteria.
Coding standards Report Types

Books/Publications Among many different types of database reports, three are most
common:
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks ● List reports look like a table (or a DBGrid), each row containg data
from a row in a recordset.

Free Code Projects
● Label reports present data inside rectangular areas. This type of report
Humor and Fun is mostly used when printing envelopes.

● Master-detail reports are used when report contains data from two
Icons and Glyphs linked recordsets. In general, several detail records follow the
Jobs and Offers appropriate master record. This type of report requires parent-child
relationship between two recordsets.
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our
newsletter.
Enter Email Go!
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> Free Credit Report The simplest way to create a report is to use the QuickReport Wizard
> Free Psychics located on the Forms page (Delphi 5) of the New Items dialog. We'll pick
the QuickReport List - this creates a new form with the main reporting
component TQuickRep. This component acts as a container for several
TQrBand components containing TQrLabels. There is also a TTable
component on that form.

We are not going into details about QuickReport here, since there is a
comprehensive tutorial on using the QuickReport set of
components with Delphi available on this site.
Quick ADO Delphi report

Unfortunately the Wizard crates a reporting template for BDE based
database application, by placing the TTable component on a form along
with DB and DBTables units in the uses clause. To prepare the form for
our aboutdelphi.mdb MS Access database and ADO you need to delete
the TTable from the form as well as the DB and DBTables units from the
forms uses clause.
We'll now create a simple list report containing data from the
Applications table. First make sure the newly created form is the default
for the project (Project | Options | Forms). Second add the TADOTable
component on a form, set it's Connection property to point to the
aboutdelphi.mdb database (this time were not going to use
ADOConnection) and set the Table property to Application. Third,
remove the TitleBand1 (TQrBand), PageFooterBand1 (TQrBand) and the
ColumnHeaderBand1 (TQrBand). Also, remove the QRLabel2 from the
DetailBand1. This leaves us with only ADOTable1, QuickRep1 and
DetailBand1. To link QuickReport1 with ADOTable1 set it's Dataset
property to point to ADOTable1.
The next step is to place several TQRDBText components on

DetailBand1, one for each field we want to print, and set their Dataset
property to ADOTable1. Add three QRDBText components, let them point
to Author, Type and Description fields of the Applications table.
To see the report at design time set ADOTable1.Active to True, right
click the QuickRep1 component and select Preview. This is something
similar to what you should see:
To show this preview window at run time, we need to call the Preview
method of the TQuickRep component.
procedure TQRListForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);

begin
QRListForm.QuickRep1.Preview;
end;
Note that when previewing the report, Delphi (QuickReport) uses the
standard QuickReport preview form. If you want to change the
appearance or behaviour of this form you can create your own preview
form with the TQRPreview component.
To send this report to a printer use the Print method.
Charts and Images

In many cases you'll need to create reports that consist of other
elements like charts or images. Creating a report with chart is simple.
Just pick the TQRChart component and use it as explained it the
Charting with Databases chapter. To show a picture stored inside an
Access database you should use the TQRImage (not TQRDBImage)
component. Since there are some "problems" with displaying pictures

inside Access you should consider the Pictures inside a database chapter.
To the next chapter

That's it. I just wanted to inform you about printing options with ADO
Delphi based solutions. You should be aware that beside QuickReport
components there are other reporting tools available to a Delphi
developer. You can even use Automation to control MS Word and use it
as a reporting tool. If you need any kind of help so far, please post to
the Delphi Programming Forum where all the questions are answered
and beginners are treated as experts.

>> Data Modules - DB/18
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Data Modules - DB Course/Chapter 18
Delphi Programming

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ESSENTIALS
Data Modules
How to use the TDataModule class - central location for
· A Beginner’s Guide to collecting and encapsulating data access objects, their
Delphi Programming properties, events and code.

ADO DB programming When developing simple database Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET applications (with one or two forms)

it is quite usual to place all the data- Join the Discussion
· Free code APPs & access components on a form with "Post your views and comments
data-aware components. But if you
plan on reusing groups of database Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index and system objects, or if you want
to isolate the parts of your Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE application that handle database • free DB Course.TOC
connectivity and business rules, • more Database articles
then Delphi's Data Modules provide
What's New and Hot a convenient organizational tool.
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
This chapter of the free database course for Delphi
Beginners Here beginners shows how to use Data Modules in Delphi
(ADO) database development to partition an application
COM/OLE/ActiveX into user interface, application logic and data.
Database
Data modules provide a formal mechanism for collecting and
Distrubuted comp.
encapsulating DataSet and DataSource objects, their attributes,
events and code (business rules) in one central location. Data

Game Programming modules can contain only nonvisual components and are
generally used in database and Web development. They provide
Graphics
Delphi developers a visual way to manipulate and code non-
Internet/Intranet visual components of an application.
Mathematics
Generally, a TDataModule class is used for some of the
Multimedia purposes:
Delphi Pascal/IDE
- Sharing data access components and code
Screen saver dev. Use a TDataModule to provide a location for centralized handling
VCL Using of nonvisual components. Typically these are data access
components (TADOConnection, TADOTable, TADOQuery,
VCL Write/Enhance TADOCommand, etc), but they can also be other nonvisual
components. This is convenient when an application has multiple
Web Services
forms that share the same data access provider - if your
Windows/Shell/API application operates on only one database file (one mdb) then
you'll need only one TADOConnection component for all the
Kylix (D on Linux)
dataset components.
Coding standards - Design time visual organization

Books/Publications At design time, the Diagram page in the Code editor provides
visual tools for setting up logical relationships among the
Dev. Utilities components on the data module. You can drag a property
FAQs/Tips/Tricks connector from one component to another to hook them up.
Drag a master-detail connector between tables to join them. You
Free Code Projects reach the persistent datasets fields much faster than when using
the fields editor.
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs - Business rules centralization
Jobs and Offers In the unit file for the data module a Delphi developer may also
place any business rules that are to be applied to the application.
Training/CD/Video These are the controls that prevent invalid data begin entered
VCL & Tools into a database and ensuring that valid data is maintained within
the database.
Subject Library - Code maintenance

Data modules make code maintenance easier since you only
have to change code in one place instead of in every form -
All articles on this especially when having common db functions located in a data
topic module or if we create an application with several forms serving
the same database tables and/or queries.
New ... Data Module

To create a data module at design time, choose File | New | Data
Module. At design time, a data module looks like a standard
Delphi form with a white background and no alignment grid. At
run time data module exists only in memory. DataModule has
only two properties, Name and Tag, and two events, OnCreate

Stay up-to-date! and OnDestroy. Use the Name property when referring to
Subscribe to our module's objects from other units.
newsletter.
Enter Email Go! DataModules are not limited to data access components, they
can also contain other nonvisual components, such as
Advertising TMainMenu, TTimer, TSaveDialog or TPopUpMenu).
> Free Psychics
You place all the components in the right pane ("Components")

of data module's window. The tree view on the left is for
navigation purposes.
Note: in Delphi versions prior to version 6, the TDataModule

class was defined in the Forms unit. Delphi 6 moves
TDataModule class to the Classes unit to allow smaller GUI-less
applications to be written and to separate OS independent
classes. In Delphi 6, the Tree diagram and the Data Diagram are
separated. The Diagram page on the Code editor provides visual
tools for setting relationships among non-visual (and visual)
components.
When you select the Data Diagram page (for the first time), you
are presented with an empty container, in which you can drag
any object from the Tree View and then link those objects.
Relationships include parent/child, datasource/dataset and
similar. For example, after moving a TADOTable and
TADOConnection to the Diagram view, you select the Property
connector icon, click the ADOTable and drag to the
ADOConnection. The connection will be made:
TADOTable.Connection property will point to ADOConnection
component - as can be seen in the Object Inspector.

To make the data module available to another unit in the

application, select that unit, then choose File|Use Unit to add the
data module to the uses clause for the unit. If you have several
forms that refer to the same data module, make sure the data
module is created before it is referenced from those forms - or
you'll get an access violation error.
When refering to a dataset like ADOTable1 (on a data module,
named uDM) from some data browsing form (let's say form1)
your code will look like:
// some procedure in form1

uDM.ADOTable1.Open;
To the next chapter


>> Handling database errors
More Delphi


TOPIC.
· NEXT ARTICLE: Before you start optimizing Delphi code.
How to make sure that the Murphy's law: "Any program will expand to fill
available memory" does not apply to your Delphi applications.
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Handling database errors - DB Course/Chapter 19
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with Zarko Gajic Your Guide to one of hundreds of sites Search in this topic

Subjects RTL referenceGlossary|Tips/Tricks|FREE App/VCL|Best'O'Net|Books|Link To
ESSENTIALS
· A Beginner’s Guide to development. Find out about global exception handling and dataset specific error
Delphi Programming events. See how to write an error logging procedure.

One of the most important elements of database programming Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET
is handling database errors. Any robust (database) application
· Free code APPs & must contain error trapping mechanism to prevent an Join the Discussion
inexperienced (or careless) user to, for example, input a bad "Post your views and comments
value into a data field or delete a record that should not be
· A-Z Site Index deleted. Another error might pop up while trying to connect to Discuss!
a database that does not exist.
Our goal in this chapter of the free database course is to • free DB Course.TOC
introduce error handling techniques in Delphi ADO • more Database articles
What's New and Hot • On errors and exceptions
database application. You can learn about errors and
Top Picks-Tool/VCL exceptions (general, not database specific) in the article
entitled Errors and Exceptions.
Beginners Here
There are several approaches we can use to handle database related errors. One approach
COM/OLE/ActiveX
is to let Delphi show the exception message, but it is much more user friendly to try to
Database correct the error and show some more details on the error:
Distrubuted comp.
● Global exception handling allows you to create a single procedure to handle any
Game Programming exceptions that may occur in a program. You write a code for the OnException event of the
Graphics global Application object by using the ApplicationEvents component. This code is then used
to handle not just database related errors but any error that may appear while the
Internet/Intranet application is running.
Mathematics
● Handling dataset's specific events is an another approach. Events like OnPostError,
Multimedia OnEditError, OnInsertError and similar occur when an attempt to post a record, edit or
Delphi Pascal/IDE insert fails. All those events are dataset specific.
Screen saver dev.

● Surrounding risky database operations with try-except and try-finally blocks, such as
VCL Using a call to the Execute statement of the ADOQuery object is another way to trap a possible
exception.
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services EDatabaseError, EADOError, OLE exceptions
When developing Delphi ADO based database solutions you should be aware of the several
Windows/Shell/API

types of exceptions. In general, information that describes the conditions of a database

Kylix (D on Linux) error can be obtained for use by an application through the use of an EDatabaseError
exception. The more ADO specific exception object is the ADOError object raised when an
Coding standards application detects errors generated by ADO datasets.
Finally, since ADO is based on OLE, OLE exceptions (EOLEError, EOLEException and
Books/Publications
EOLESysError) might occur, in a Delphi application, during an attempt to invoke a method
Dev. Utilities or property of an OLE automation object - ADO Express (dbGO in D6) components that
implement ADO in Delphi are built as wrappers around the ADO objects. When we use ADO
FAQs/Tips/Tricks extensions like ADOX or JRO libraries OLE exceptions may occur, too.
Free Code Projects
Error information and management
Humor and Fun
All the types of exceptions that may occur in a Delphi application are deriveed from the
Icons and Glyphs Exception class, which provides a set of properties and methods that can be used to handle
error conditions in a graceful manner.
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video In situations where an ADO dataset is used without any data aware components (reporting,
looping through a recordset, etc) we can use exception handling blocks:
VCL & Tools
try
Subject Library
ADOTable.Open;
except
All articles on this on E:Exception do
topic begin
MessageDlg('Error Opening Table ' + E.ClassName,
mtError, [mbOK], 0);
Stay up-to-date! LogError(E);
Subscribe to our
newsletter.
end;
end;
Enter Email Go!
Advertising
> Free Credit Report In the except block, you use a series of on/do statements to check for different exceptions.
> Free Psychics When using the Exception for E your code will handle all exceptions that occur. In the
MessageDlg we display the error message and the exception class (E.ClassName). For
example, if you try to open a table that is exclusively opened by some other user (Table
design in MS Access) you'll get an EOLEError.
When handling dataset's specific events (for example OnPostError for ADOTable dataset)
we write code for the appropriate events.
procedure TForm1.ADOTablePostError(
DataSet: TDataSet;
E: EDatabaseError;
var Action: TDataAction);
begin
LogError (E); //custom error loggin procedure
{
Show some message to the user
about the failure of the the post operation..
}
Action := daAbort;
end;
The Action parameter indicates how an application should respond to a database error
condition. If you are able to determine the cause of the error and fix it, you use the
daRetry action - Delphi will try to re-execute the Post method. The daAbort action should

be specified when you handle the error (show some meaningful message) and there is no
need for the exception to "go" the the global exception handler (Application.OnException).
The daFial is the default action.
If your application provides the event handler for the OnException event of the
ApplicationEvents component, all the exceptions can be handled in one place:
procedure TForm1.ApplicationEventsException
(Sender: TObject; E: Exception);
begin
LogError (E); //custom error logging procedure
end;
The message property (of the Exception object) can be used to show a message on the
screen, save the message in some log file, or combine some specific message information
with our own custom message.
Error logging procedure

In most situations it is a good idea to have some error logging procedure that writes every
error to a text file. The LogError procedure below uses the TStringList object to store
information of the current error in a file named error.log (in the application folder).
procedure LogError(E:Exception);
var sFileName : string;
errLogList : TStringList;
begin
sFileName := ExtractFilePath(Application.EXEName) + 'error.log';
errLogList := TStringList.Create;
try
if FileExists(sFileName) then
errLogList.LoadFromFile(sFileName);
with errLogList do
begin
Add('Error Time Stamp: ' +
FormatDateTime('hh:nn am/pm', Now) +
' on ' +
FormatDateTime('mm/dd/yy', Now));
Add('Error Class: ' + E.ClassName);
Add('Error Message: ' + E.Message);
SaveToFile(sFileName);
end; //with
finally
errLogList.Free;
end;
end;
When you open the error.log file with some text editor, you'll get something like:
...
Error Time Stamp: 02:49 pm on 10.30.01
Error Class: EOleException
Error Message: Table 'djelatnici' is exclusively locked by user...

...
ADO Errors collection

Any operation involving ADOExpress components can generate one or more errors. As each
error occurs, one or more Error objects are placed in the Errors collection of the
ADOConnection component. You must note that error objects represent individual errors
from the provider and are not ADO-specific, this means that the "same" error will be
reported differently by MS Access and differently by MS SQL Server. When an error occurs,
the provider is responsible for passing an error text to ADO. In Delphi, using the Errors
Collection object directly is not recommended unless you are familiar with connection
object operations.
The Error property of TADOConnection component represents the Errors object and has
several properties. The Description property contains the text of the error. The Number
property contains the long value of the error constant. The Count property indicates the
number of Error objects currently stored in the collection. To get the Description of the last
error in the Errors object you can use the next statement:
ADOConnection1.Errors.Item[ADOConnection1.Errors.Count-1].Description;
To the next chapter

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the questions are answered and beginners are treated as experts.

>> From ADO Query to HTML
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From ADO Query to HTML - DB Course/Chapter 20
Delphi Programming
with Zarko Gajic Your Guide to one of hundreds of Search in this topic
sites
ESSENTIALS
How to export your data to HTML using Delphi and ADO. This is the first step
· A Beginner’s Guide to in publishing your database on the Internet - see how to create a static
Delphi Programming HTML table from an ADO query.

ADO DB programming
· Delphi for .NET • Projects CODE
In this chapter, of the free database Delphi ADO course,
· Free code APPs & you are going to see how to easily create HTML pages Printer friendly version
VCL based on database information. In particular, you'll see
how to open a query from an MS Access database with Join the Discussion
· A-Z Site Index Delphi and loop through the contents generating an "Post your views and comments
HTML page for each row in a recordset. to this chapter of the free Delphi
BUYER'S GUIDE database Programming Course"
Discuss!
Start a new application - this creates an empty Delphi
What's New and Hot form. Related Resources
Add the following data components : • free DB Course.TOC
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
● TAdoConnection (name: AdoConnection1) • Internet programming
Beginners Here ● TAdoQuery (name: AdoQuery1)
● TDataSource (name: DataSource1) From Other Guides
COM/OLE/ActiveX
● TDBGrid (name: DBGrid1) • About HTML
Database
Distrubuted comp. To display the generated HTML you'll need several more components to be dropped
on a form.
Game Programming
Graphics ● TWebBrowser (name: WebBrowser1) - used to display the generated HTML.
● TMemo (name: Memo1) - used to display the text of the generate HTML.
Internet/Intranet
● TButton (name: Button1) - used to open a query, create the HTML code and
Mathematics display it.
Multimedia
This is how your form should look at design time (in the middle of the form there is a
Delphi Pascal/IDE WebBrowser component)
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using

VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects The first thing you need to do when working with a database in Delphi and ADO, is to
set relations between data access components then open a database connection. Just
Humor and Fun to test your knowledge we'll link all DB related components from code (no need to
Icons and Glyphs use the Object Inspector). You place the code in the OnCreate event for the form
(plus some extra code to pre-set other components):
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
VCL & Tools var ConStr: widestring;
begin
ConStr := 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;'+
Subject Library 'Data Source=C:\!gajba\About\aboutdelphi.mdb;'+
'Persist Security Info=False';
topic DBGrid1.DataSource := DataSource1;
DataSource1.DataSet := ADOQuery1;
ADOQuery1.Connection := ADOConnection1;
Stay up-to-date! ADOConnection1.ConnectionString := ConStr;
Subscribe to our ADOConnection1.LoginPrompt:=False;
newsletter.
Enter Email Go! Edit1.Text:='SELECT * FROM [tablename]';
Memo1.Text:='';
Advertising end;
> Free Psychics
The next step is to get the recordset by opening a query so we can get access to the
data. The query text is in the Edit1 components Text property. The code should be
placed in the OnClick event of a Button1 (as described below).
ADOQuery1.SQL.Text:=Edit1.Text;
ADOQuery1.Open;
HTML code
HTML is the most widely spread format for content on the Web. If your
knowledge on HTML is low, please consider visiting About's HTML site.
Here's a really quick info on html: in general, a HTML page consists of
text, plain ASCII text. An HTML file can contain many, so called, tags
which determine the style of the font, formating of the paragraph, ...
You use special tags to create a table with rows and columns.
After we've opened up a recordset, we loop through the records creating a table for
each entry. Prior to generating a HTML table, we create the HTML header, title and

body. We first loop through the field names to create a table header, then loop
through the recordset to create and fill table rows.

var
shtml : widestring;
htmlfile : TextFile;
i : integer;
AvailableFields: set of TFieldType;
begin
AvailableFields:=[ftWideString, ftDate, ftFloat];
//open query
ADOQuery1.SQL.Text:=Edit1.Text;
ADOQuery1.Open;
// --> create a html page
//html header
shtml:= '<html> <head> <title>';
shtml:= shtml + Edit1.Text;
shtml:= shtml + '</title></head>' + #13#10;
shtml:= shtml + '<body>' + #13#10;
shtml:= shtml + 'Table created from query: <i>'
+ Edit1.Text + '</i>' + #13#10;
//table header
shtml:= shtml + '<table border="1" width="100%">' + #13#10;
shtml:= shtml + '<tr>' + #13#10;
for i:=0 to AdoQuery1.FieldCount-1 do
begin
if ADOQuery1.Fields[i].DataType in AvailableFields then
begin
shtml:= shtml + '<td>';
shtml:= shtml +
'<b>' +
ADOQuery1.Fields[i].DisplayName +
'</b>';
shtml:= shtml + '</td>' + #13#10;
end;
end;{for}
shtml:= shtml + '</tr>' + #13#10;
//table body
while not adoquery1.Eof do
begin
shtml:= shtml + '<tr>' + #13#10;
for i:=0 to AdoQuery1.FieldCount-1 do
begin
if ADOQuery1.Fields[i].DataType in AvailableFields then

begin
shtml:= shtml + '<td>';
shtml:= shtml + ADOQuery1.Fields[i].AsString;
shtml:= shtml + '</td>' + #13#10;
end;
end;{for}
shtml:= shtml + '</tr>' + #13#10;
ADOQuery1.Next;
end;{while}
shtml:= shtml + '</table>' + #13#10;
shtml:= shtml + '</body></html>';
Note: for the sake of simplicity, we'll allow only string, number and date fields to be
converted and inserted in a html table. The AvailableFields variable is a set of
TFieldTypes declared as: AvailableFields: set of TFieldType; in the VAR section and
assigned like: AvailableFields:=[ftWideString, ftDate, ftFloat];
Once you have the shtml string variable filled with the HTML, we simply show it in the
Memo, save the html string to the disk (in the text file that has the applications
name, extension is set to htm), and finally navigate to the saved file in a
WebBrowser.
// --> assign to memo

Memo1.Text := shtml;
// --> save in a htm file

AssignFile(htmlfile,
ChangeFileExt(
Application.ExeName,'.htm'));
Rewrite(htmlfile);
WriteLn(htmlfile, shtml);
CloseFile(htmlfile);
// --> browse to the file

WebBrowser1.Navigate(ChangeFileExt(
Application.ExeName,'.htm'));
end;{Button1.OnClick}
Now start the project, write some valid query string in the Edit component, like
SELECT * FROM authors, click the Button1, and this is what you should get:

It is clear that you can easily configure this code to determine which fields to include
and which not, how to sort the database, which filters to apply (you can use WHERE
in your SQL statement), and set the HTML file look (Colors, Fonts, etc). Download the
projects code and start exporting your data to HTML.
The TCustomContentProducer components

Another way of converting database query results to html pages is to use some of the
descendants of the TCustomContentProducer component. The components
(PageProducer, DataSetTableProducer, QueryTableProducer, ...) are located on the
Internet page of the component palette - if your Delphi version includes them. We'll
be looking at some of those components in the next chapter.
To the next chapter

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where all the questions are answered and beginners are treated as experts.

>> Using ADO in Delphi 3 and 4 (before AdoExpress) - Chapter 21
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About, Inc. All rights reserved.

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of sites
more!
ESSENTIALS
Using ADO in Delphi 3 and 4 (before
· A Beginner’s Guide to AdoExpress)
How to import Active Data Objects (ADO) type-libraries in Delphi 3
Delphi Programming
and 4 to create a wrapper around components that encapsulate the
· Free course: Delphi functionality of ADO objects, properties and methods.
ADO DB programming
· Delphi for .NET More of this Feature
Article submitted by: Richard Sutcliffe. Printer friendly version
· Free code APPs &
VCL Join the Discussion
Chapter 21 of the free Delphi ADO DB Couse "Post your views and comments
· A-Z Site Index for beginners. to this chapter of the free Delphi
BUYER'S GUIDE Discuss!
With the advent of Delphi 5 Enterprise, Borland
introduced ADO Express, the first time Delphi has Related Resources
What's New and Hot ever provided database access without the BDE. • free DB Course.TOC
The reason behind this whas simple, the BDE had • more Database articles
Top Picks-Tool/VCL its day. COM development was becoming the • TOP ADO wrappers
norm and the BDE was unfortunately
Beginners Here incompatible. Elsewhere on the Web
• Download MS ADO
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Unfortunately, the ADO Express components
Database aren't without their flaws aither. One of the main (now fixed) bugs was the
dreaded 'either BOF or EOF is true or the record has been deleted error. On
Distrubuted comp. top of this, the components were uncomfortably shoe-horned into BDE-style
Game Programming component interfaces.
Graphics
Which leaves us with a quandry over what to do if we want to use Active Data
Internet/Intranet Objects (ADO) in our Delphi applications; after all there are many benefits -
ADO is faster, with native support for some of the more common Microsoft
Mathematics
database engines, and you don't have to live with the old BDE distribution
Multimedia problem as all recent versions of Windows have support built right in.

Delphi Pascal/IDE Delphi does provide an answer, however, in its amazing support for type-
Screen saver dev. libraries and all things COM, by allowing you to import the type-library and
automatically creating a wrapper.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance MSADOxx.TLB - Ado Type Library
To import the ADO type library go to the File menu and select Open... From
Web Services the Files of type combo select Type Library, and browse to the ADO folder
Windows/Shell/API (usually found in \PROGRAM FILES\COMMON FILES\SYSTEM\). The ADO type-
libraries are named MSADOxx.TLB. The number on the end will depend on the
Kylix (D on Linux) version of Windows you have installed (ADO is also installed by Office and
many other programs). The latest version as of writing is 2.7, which you can
Coding standards download from Microsoft.
Books/Publications
Once Delphi has finished processing the MSADOxx.TLB file, it will present you
Dev. Utilities with an editor showing all the types, interfaces, etc it has read from the type-
library. Pressing F12 at this point will display the Pascal wrapper unit
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
ADODB_TLB.PAS (if the file-path isn't the BORLAND\DELPHIx\IMPORTS\ folder
Free Code Projects you may wish to move this so subsequent projects can find it).
Humor and Fun
You can at this point use the ADODB_TLB unit by adding it into your projects
Icons and Glyphs USES clause, however there are some problems to be overcome.
Jobs and Offers
Microsoft's VARIANT type
Training/CD/Video The first is how to handle Microsoft's VARIANT type. Delphi's equivalent is
VCL & Tools OLEVARIANT, though most programmers will be used to the native STRING,
INTEGER and the like. Again this is something Delphi handles with ease with
an array of functions such as VarCast. Below is an example of a function that
Subject Library allows us to cast variants into something easier to swallow:
All articles on this function oleGetStr(value: oleVariant): string;

var
topic
index,
lowVal,
Stay up-to-date! highVal : integer;
Subscribe to our oleArray: PSafeArray;
newsletter. oleObj : oleVariant;
Enter Email Go! begin
result := '';
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> Free Psychics case VarType(value) of
varEmpty,
varNull: result := '';
varSmallint,
varInteger,
varByte,
varError: result := IntToStr(value);
varSingle,
varDouble,
varCurrency: result := FloatToStr(value);
varDate: result := DateTimeToStr(value);
varOleStr,

varStrArg,
varString: result := value;
varBoolean:
if value then
result := 'True'
else result := 'False';
varDispatch, // do not remove IDispatch!
varVariant,
varUnknown,
varTypeMask:
begin
VarAsType(value, varOleStr);
result := value;
end;
else
if VarIsArray(value) then
begin
VarArrayLock(value);
index := VarArrayDimCount(value);
lowVal := VarArrayLowBound(value, index);
highVal := VarArrayHighBound(value, index);
oleArray := TVariantArg(value).pArray;
for index := lowVal to highVal do

begin
SafeArrayGetElement(oleArray, index, oleObj);
result := result + oleGetStr(oleObj) + #13#10;
end;
VarArrayUnlock(value);
Delete(result, length(result) - 1, 2);
end
else
result := ''; //varAny, varByRef
end;
except
// do nothing, just capture
end;
end;
Once you know how to import type-libraries & handle variant types, Microsoft's
MSDN site will become your best friend. There is no way Borland could keep
up with the new type-libraries and technologies churned out by Microsoft,
however by utilizing MSDN you can find out exactly what each method expects
and returns and the wrapper unit will allow you to see exactly how this
converts into Object Pascal.
An example of this can be found in the function below:

function adoConnect(
connectionStr: string;
userName: string = '';
password: string = ''
): oleVariant;
begin
result := CreateOleObject('ADODB.Connection');
if (VarType(result) = varDispatch) then

if (userName <> '') then
result.Open(connectionStr, userName, password)
else
result.Open(connectionStr);
end;
This function allows us to open up an ADO connection by passing in a

connection string (a collection of parameters parsed by ADO describing the
database & provider), and optionally the required username and password.
The example above uses what is termed late-binding, the disadvantage of this
approach being that Delphi cannot interpret what is being called until runtime,
however it does allow you better support as the automatic type-library
conversion process cannot convert every method available. The alternative,
early-binding, utilizes the classes & methods as defined in the Delphi wrapper
unit and as such allow you to use features such as code-completion, although
is much more restrictive. An example of early-binding is shown below:
function adoGetDisconnectedRecordset(
adoCon: oleVariant;
adoSQL: string
): oleVariant;
var
data: RecordSet;
begin
data := CoRecordset.Create;
try
data.CursorLocation := adUseClient;
data.Open(
adoSQL,
adoCon.ConnectionString,
adOpenKeyset,
adLockBatchOptimistic,
adCmdText
);
data.Set_ActiveConnection(nil);

result := data;
finally
data := nil;
end;
end;
Now that you know how to interpret type-libraries you can apply your
knowledge to other Microsoft and third-party technologies, such as XML and
MTS.
To the next chapter

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Programming Forum where all the questions are answered and beginners are
treated as experts.

>> Transactions in Delphi ADO database development
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hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
Transactions in Delphi ADO database
· A Beginner’s Guide to development
How many times have you wanted to insert, delete or update a
Delphi Programming
lot of records collectively wanting that either all of them get
· Free course: Delphi executed or if there is an error then none is executed at all? This
article will show you how to post or undo a series of changes
ADO DB programming made to the source data in a single call.
· Delphi for .NET
· Free code APPs & More of this Feature
VCL The general idea behind a transaction is Printer friendly version
that several steps can be performed in
· A-Z Site Index series, with the capability to undo all of the Join the Discussion
steps at once if needed. In addition, the "Post your views and comments
BUYER'S GUIDE to this chapter of the free Delphi
transaction should happen inside an
isolated world where other transactions Discuss!
What's New and Hot cannot change data while your transaction
is running. Related Resources
Top Picks-Tool/VCL • free DB Course.TOC
For example, to transfer money between • more Database articles
Beginners Here two bank accounts, you subtract an
COM/OLE/ActiveX amount from one account and add the same amount to the other. If
either update fails, the accounts no longer balance. Treating these
Database changes as a single event ensures either all or none of the changes
apply.
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming In this chapter of the free Delphi ADO database course we'll see how to
Graphics enable transaction processing in Delphi ADO development.
Internet/Intranet

Mathematics BeginTrans, CommitTrans, RollBackTrans

Database transactions are a means to allow a user to do many
Multimedia operations on a recordset or not to do any of them. There is no such
Delphi Pascal/IDE thing in a transaction that one task is done and other is not.
Transactions are always executed as a *whole*. By using transactions,
Screen saver dev. you ensure that the database is not left in an inconsistent state when a
problem occurs completing one of the actions that make up the
VCL Using
transaction.
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services In Delphi ADO's transaction processing, 3 methods are used with the
TADOConnection object to save or cancel changes made to the data
Windows/Shell/API source.
Kylix (D on Linux)
Once you call the BeginTrans method, the provider will no longer
instantaneously commit any changes you make until you call
Coding standards
CommitTrans or RollbackTrans to end the transaction.
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities Transaction Level
The IsolationLevel property is the level of transaction isolation for a
FAQs/Tips/Tricks TADOConnection object. The purpose of the isolation level is to define
Free Code Projects how other transactions can interact with your transactions, when they
work with the same tables. For example, can you see changes in other
Humor and Fun transactions before or after they are committed? This property only
goes into effect after you make a BeginTrans method call.
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers Transaction processing
Training/CD/Video To start a transaction call the BeginTrans method of the
TADOConnection object. BeginTrans returns the nesting level of the
VCL & Tools new transaction. A return value of "1" indicates you have opened a top-
level transaction (that is, the transaction is not nested within another
transaction), "2" indicates that you have opened a second-level
Subject Library transaction (a transaction nested within a top-level transaction), and so
forth. Once the BeginTrans is executed, the OnBeginTransComplete
event is triggered and the InTransaction property to True.
topic Note: Since transactions can be nested, all lower-level transactions
must be resolved before you can resolve higher-level transactions.
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our Once you have started a transaction, a call to commit the transaction is
newsletter. usually attempted in a try...except block. If the transaction cannot
commit successfully, you can use the except block to handle the error
Enter Email Go! and retry the operation or to roll back the transaction.
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var Level: integer;

begin
Level:=ADOConnection1.BeginTrans;
try
//do some database
//updating, deleting or inserting
ADOConnection1.CommitTrans;
except
on E:Exception do ADOConnection1.RollbackTrans;
end;//try
end;
As you can see, using transactions in Delphi ADO is rather simple.

When you call CommitTrans, the current transaction ends and, if
possible, all changes are saved. However, if the database is unable to
save any one of the changes, then none of them are saved. In this
latter case when a saving problem occurs, the CommitTrans method
throws an exception, we catch it in the except part and call the
RollbackTrans to cancel any changes made during the current
transaction.
Even though it is possible, it is NOT advisable to start, commit or

rollback a transaction in different event handlers (button clicks, for
example). Windows are event driven, if a user starts a transaction
within a button click procedure, you must be sure he will try to commit
it. Thus, the longer a transaction is active, the higher is the probability
that transaction will conflict with another when you attempt to commit
any changes.
To the next chapter


>> Deploying Delphi ADO database applications - DB/23
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ESSENTIALS
Deploying Delphi ADO database
· A Beginner’s Guide to applications
It is time to make your Delphi ADO database application
Delphi Programming
available for others to run. Once you have created a
· Free course: Delphi Delphi ADO based solution, the final step is to successfully
ADO DB programming
· Delphi for .NET More of this Feature
Once you have created a Delphi Printer friendly version
· Free code APPs &
ADO based solution, the final step is
VCL to successfully deploy it to the Join the Discussion
user's computer. This is the topic "Post your views and comments
· A-Z Site Index will cover in this chapter of the free to this chapter of the free Delphi
Delphi ADO database course. Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE
What is required by a given Related Resources

What's New and Hot application varies, depending on the • free DB Course.TOC
type of application. Each project • more Database articles
Top Picks-Tool/VCL • Top installation tools
may contain several executable
files, and a number of supporting
Beginners Here files, such as DLLs, and package Elsewhere on the Web
COM/OLE/ActiveX files. In most cases you'll only have • MDAC download

one executable to install on a target • DCOM download
Database computer - your application's
Distrubuted comp. executable file - Delphi produces applications wrapped in
compact exe files, so called standalone Windows application.

Game Programming
Applications that access databases involve special installation
Graphics considerations beyond copying the application’s executable file
onto the target computer.
Internet/Intranet
Mathematics When deploying database applications that use ADO, you need
to be sure that MDAC version 2.1 or later is installed on the
Multimedia
system where you plan to run the application. MDAC is
Delphi Pascal/IDE automatically installed with software such as Windows 98 / 2000
and Internet Explorer version 5 or later. No other deployment
Screen saver dev.
steps are required.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance ADO on Windows 95
If your client's computer has Windows 95 you may get a warning
Web Services indicating that you need DCOM95 to install MDAC, since there is
Windows/Shell/API no support for ADO in Windows 95. Once you install DCOM95,
you'll can proceed and install MDAC. Here's a tip how to find the
Kylix (D on Linux) OS version.
Coding standards MS Data Version Checker

Books/Publications One of the tools that might be handy is the Microsoft's
Component Checker. The Component Checker tool is designed to
Dev. Utilities help you determine installed version information and diagnose
FAQs/Tips/Tricks installation issues with the Microsoft Data Access Components
(MDAC).
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun The database file
The data files (in our case an MS Access database), must be
Icons and Glyphs made available to the application. You make it available by
Jobs and Offers simply copying (an "empty") the MDB file to the client computer.
The process must be done before the user first start the
Training/CD/Video application. Each time you send an updated exe file, if the
VCL & Tools structure of the database has not changed, you do not need to
redeploy the MDB file.
Subject Library The connection string

Obviously, when creating database applications that are to be
run on various machines, the connection to the data source
All articles on this should not be hard-coded in the executable. In other words, the
topic database file may be located anywhere on the user's computer -
the connection string used in the TADOConnection object must
be created at run time. One of the suggested places to store the
path to the database is the Windows Registry. In general to
create a connection string at run time you have to a) place the
Full Path to the database in Registry; and b) each time you start
your application, read the Registry, "create" the
ConnectionString and Open the ADOConnection. Here's a sample
code.

Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our Is that all? This seams to easy
newsletter. Yes, when described by words it seems very easy, just copy the
exe file, the mdb file and be sure the client computer has MDAC.
Enter Email Go! Of course, the first time you try to deploy your state-of-the-art
database solution you'll bump into a wall. How to copy a file on
Advertising another computer to a folder like '\Program Files\YOUR
> Free Credit Report COMPANY\PROJECT NAME\ApplicationName.exe'? There is an
> Free Psychics answer that might solve most of the problems, the installation
tools. The Install Sheild Express that comes with some Delphi
versions can be used to create an installation application. This
tool gives your users the ability to select where to install your
application, let's the user decide what parts of the application
would be installed (exe, help, mdb, ...) and makes the process of
creating a Project group in the Start menu easy. Creating
insulation applications with IE Express is not hard nor is it trivial.
I'll leave this for some future article.
To the next chapter

If you need any kind of help at this point, please post to the
Delphi Programming Forum where all the questions are
answered and beginners are treated as experts.

>> Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real Problems - Real
Solutions
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TOPIC.
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Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real Problems - Real Solutions - DB/24
Delphi Programming

Spiegel, and more!
ESSENTIALS
Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real
· A Beginner’s Guide to Problems - Real Solutions
In real world situations, really doing database
Delphi Programming
programming is much more complex than writing about.
· Free course: Delphi This chapter points to some great Delphi Programming
Forum threads initiated by this Course - discussions that
ADO DB programming solve problems on the field.
· Delphi for .NET
· Free code APPs & Related Resources
Hello, and welcome to the 24th
VCL chapter of the free Delphi ADO
database course. Only two more
· A-Z Site Index chapters and the course is over. The
intention of the course was to bring database development with
BUYER'S GUIDE
ADO more closer to Delphi developers. I hope that we managed
to learn some valuable techniques in the last 23 chapters of this
What's New and Hot course.
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
The Course focused on the most common uses of ADO in a
Delphi application: connecting to a database using
Beginners Here TADOConnection, work with Tables and Queries, handle
COM/OLE/ActiveX database exception, create reports, etc. We've managed to cover
most of the situations that arise in real world database
Database application situations. Of course, some topics were not
discussed, covering everything you can do with Delphi and ADO
Distrubuted comp.
could hardly be placed in a single book. As stated in the first
chapters, this free online course is targeted towards Delphi

Game Programming database beginners as well as for those who want a broad
overview of the art of database programming with Delphi.
Graphics
Internet/Intranet My intention, it this chapter, is to point you to some great Delphi
Mathematics Programming Forum threads initiated by the topics we covered
through the Course. In most cases, Forum discussions are real
Multimedia solutions to your real problems!
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Real Problem 1
Screen saver dev. Delphi, MS Access... "Should we use Delphi / ADO combination
VCL Using when doing database applications? Are there a big differences in
the Delphi program which we are going to create by using
VCL Write/Enhance different databases? Maybe not everybody do have Access. On
Web Services the other hand Lotus Approach and Interbase 6 are free
meanwhile."
Windows/Shell/API Real Solution 1
Kylix (D on Linux)
Real Problem 2
ADOExpress / dbGo, BDE, ODBC... "I only can use the ADO
Coding standards
when I have Delphi 5 Enterprise Edition / Delphi 6 Professional!
Books/Publications Is it possible to use Delphi 4/3 as a front end to a local Access
database?"
Dev. Utilities
Real Solution 2 A
FAQs/Tips/Tricks Real Solution 2 B
Free Code Projects
Real Problem 3
Humor and Fun Using TADOConnection, TADOQuery, TADOTable and
Icons and Glyphs similiar... "I'm using Delphi 5 with ADO connected to MS-SQL
server 7. I designed and coded a program using TADOQuery and
Jobs and Offers DBGrid to view all of the records from 7x,xxx records view with
Training/CD/Video joining from 2 tables but the response is very slow (about 2
minutes return). Do you have any others method to improve the
VCL & Tools speed?"
Real Solution 3 A
Subject Library
"Wouldn't it be nice, to have opportunity to manipulate
"Connection String" after the application is compiled? For
All articles on this example if MDB is in a different path or you want to switch to
another version of it. That's a question mostly of the application
topic support..."
Real Solution 3 B
"If I write the SQL statement without parameters it runs

perfectly, but if I have the same SQL statement substituting
some numeric values by parameters and then fill in the
parameters with the same values they were before, the
TADOQuery returns no data. I need parameters because these
values change according to user choices so I can't have them fix

Stay up-to-date! on the SQL property. "

Subscribe to our Real Solution 3 C
newsletter.
Enter Email Go! "I have a multiuser application wherein I need to display data in
the DBGrid from SQL Server. The problem is that the table being
Advertising used has lot of data and so I don't want to display all the data at
> Free Credit Report the same time in the DBGrid. Instead based on user navigating
> Free Psychics through the navigation button I want to fill the DBGrid with
maybe some fixed number of records every time. User can
navigate back or forward..."
Real Solution 3 D
Real Problem 4
Seeking, Locating and Searching for data ... "I am working
with a Access 97 database using Windows 2000 and Delphi 5. I
have a problem with the ADO datasets Seek method. I am
unable to use the Seek method, I get an error about my
database does not support the operation?"
Real Solution 4 A
"Is there any way I can apply a filter to a detail table? I get an
error when I try to do that, but it's really important to me right
now. Is there any way to "fool Delphi" and do it anyway? "
Real Solution 4 B
Real Problem 5
Using data modules... "I have set up a data module using an
ADOConnection, ADOTable and a Datasource. On my TabSheet, I
have dropped a dbGrid component and connected it up to my
datasource, set everything to live and the data displays.
However, as soon as I run the project the data does NOT
display..."
Real Solution 5
Real Problem 6
Creating a database from code... "How to create an MS
Access database without the MS Access. How to add an index to
an existing table, how to join two tables and set up referential
integrity?"
Real Solution 6
Real Problem 7
Deploying Delphi ADO solutions "Here are some problems
when I build my 1-st db-application: AutoNumber as a key filed
and the 'The key value for this row has been changed or deleted
at the data source. The local row is now deleted.'..."
Real Solution 7

Real Problem 8
Delphi, ADO, Access and the rest of the MS Office family "I
have a problem, I receive multiple price lists from a bunch of
companies each week in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. I need to
put these prices into a database. I need to read the data as I see
fit, cell by cell, row by row..."
Real Solution 8
Real Problem 9
Database reports with Delphi and ADO "I have two forms ....
the first one I used ADOQuery to search the Table and put the
result in the DBGrid .... the second form is to print the result in
the DBGrid to the QReport .... the question is how could I get
the data from the DBGrid to the QReport ??? "
Real Solution 9
Real Problem 10
I'm a newbie! "Where can I find about/learn database
programming with ADO and Delphi for free?"
Real Solution 10
To the next chapter

If you need any kind of help at this point, please post to the
Delphi Programming Forum where all the questions are
answered and beginners are treated as experts.

>> TOP ADO programming TIPS - DB/25
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TOPIC.
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How to change the captions on [Yes], [No], [Cancel] and similar buttons that
appear on dialog and message boxes in Delphi applications. Plus how to
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of sites
more!
ESSENTIALS
TOP ADO programming TIPS
Collection of frequently asked questions, answers, tips and tricks
· A Beginner’s Guide to about ADO programming.
Delphi Programming
ADO DB programming This chapter of free Delphi/ADO DB course offers Printer friendly version
specific recommendations to help improve and
· Delphi for .NET Join the Discussion
speed up the development of your database
· Free code APPs & applications made with Delphi and ADO. "Post your views and comments
Our intention is to update this chapter Discuss!
· A-Z Site Index dynamically with new tips, and code suggestions.
If you have a tip (or a question) on (Delphi) ADO Related Resources
BUYER'S GUIDE programming feel free to add it to this page. • free DB Course.TOC
Note that some of the questions you might ask
What's New and Hot are most likely already answered through the
chapters of this Course.
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Access, ADOExpress, dbGo
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX My clients do not have Access on their machines, will my Delphi / ADO
application work?
Database
In general: what ever database you create (Paradox or Access) the users of
Distrubuted comp. your software do not need to have MS Access or Paradox on their machines.
When using Access with ADO, MS provides MDAC (components to access an
Game Programming Access database). Note that Microsoft Jet Database Engine is not included with
Graphics MDAC 6.0 and above. MDAC and MS Jet Engine can be downloaded from
www.microsoft.com/data.
Internet/Intranet
Mathematics I have Delphi 5 Professional, where is ADOExpress?
Either you'll need to buy at least Delphi 6 Professional, or try with some third
Multimedia
party ADO VCL components

Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev. Connecting to data stores
VCL Using
How do I connect to a MS Access 2000 database?
VCL Write/Enhance ADOConnection.ConnectionString :=
'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DataSource=C:\MyDatabase.mdb;Persist
Web Services Security Info=False';
Windows/Shell/API
How do I connect to a password protected MS Access 2000 database?
Kylix (D on Linux)
ADOConnection.ConnectionString := 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Jet
OLEDB:Database Password=XXXXXX;DataSource=C:\MyDatabase.mdb;Persist
Coding standards Security Info=False';
Books/Publications
What provider should I use for MS Access
Dev. Utilities For MS Access 97 use Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.3.51
FAQs/Tips/Tricks For MS Access 2000 use Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0
Free Code Projects

How do I connect to a dBase database?
Humor and Fun ADOConnection.ConnectionString :=
'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DataSource=C:\MyDatabase.mdb;Extended
Icons and Glyphs
Properties="dBase 5.0;"';
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video How do I connect to a Paradox database?
ADOConnection.ConnectionString :=
VCL & Tools 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DataSource=C:\MyDatabase.mdb;Extended
Properties="Paradox 7.X;"';
Subject Library How do I connect to a MS Access database on a CD (read only) drive?

ADOConnection.Mode := cmShareExclusive;
Data retrieving and manipulation
topic
How do I use multiword table / field names (spaces in Table or Field
Stay up-to-date! name)?
Subscribe to our Enclose multiword names in [ ] brackets:
newsletter. ADOQuery1.SQL.Text := 'SELECT [Last Name], [First Name] FROM [Address
Enter Email Go!
Book]';
Advertising How do I use constant fields in an SQL query?

> Free Credit Report ADOQuery1.SQL.Text := 'SELECT ''2002'', [First Name], Salary FROM
Employess';
> Free Psychics
How do I delete all records in a table?

ADOQuery1.SQL.Text := 'DELETE * FROM TableName';
Why do I keep getting a "-1" for the RecordCount property

If you need the RecordCount to be correct, set the CursorType to something
other than ctOpenForwardOnly.
I'm using AutoNumber for Primary Key field to make every record
unique. If I want to read or Edit some ADOTable record after one was
appended (and Post-ed) I get en error: "The specified row could not
be located for updating. Some values may have been changed since it

was last read". Why?

After every new record you should use:
var bok: TBookmarkStr;

begin
bok:=adotable1.Bookmark;
adotable1.Requery();
adotable1.Bookmark:=bok;
end;
How do I create a disconnected ADO recordset? I want to run a query,

pick the data and delete some records but not physically.
In order to create a disconnected ADO recordset, you must first set the
ADODataSets CursorLocation property to "clUseClient". Then open the
Recordset. Then set the ADODatasets Connection to Nil. Do not close the
ADODataset.
How do I retrieve a system information, for example, list of tables,

fields (columns), indexes from the database?
TADOConnection object has an OpenSchema method that retrieves system
information like list of tables, list of columns, list of data types and so on. The
following example shows how to fill an ADODataSet (DS) with a list of all
indexes on a table (TableName):
var DS:TADODataSet;
...
ADOConnection.OpenSchema(siIndexes, VarArrayOf([Unassigned, Unassigned,
Unassigned, Unassigned, TableName]), EmptyParam, DS);
How can I improve the performance of my Ado application (like speed

up query data retrieval)?
. Avoid returning too many fields. ADO performance suffers as a larger
number of fields are returned. For example using "SELECT * FROM
TableName" when TableName has 40 fields, and you really need only 2 or 3
fields
. Choose your cursor location, cursor type, and lock type with care. There is no
single cursor type you should always use. Your choice of cursor type would
depend on the functionality you want like updatability, cursor membership,
visibility and scrollability. Opening a keyset cursor may take time for building
the key information if you have a lot of rows in the table whereas opening a
dynamic cursor is much faster.
. Release your dynamically created ADO objects ASAP.
. Check your SQL expression: when joining tables with Where t1.f1 = t2.f1
and t2.f2 = t2.f2 it is important that f1 and f2 as fields are set to be indexed.
To the next chapter

Programming Forum where all the questions are answered and beginners are
treated as experts.
DB Course Last Chapter >>

>> ADO Quiz

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· NEXT ARTICLE: Delphi dot NET.
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Who Wants to be a Delphi ADO Database Programming
· A Beginner’s Guide to Guru - the trivia game.
Delphi Programming
· Free course: Delphi Join the Discussion
Finally, the last chapter of the Free "Post your views and comments
ADO DB programming online database programming to this chapter of the free Delphi
· Delphi for .NET course for beginner Delphi database Programming Course"
Discuss!
developers - focus on ADO
· Free code APPs & techniques. Since you have come to Related Resources
VCL the end, it is now time to test your
Delphi/ADO knowledge. • more Database articles
· A-Z Site Index • Quiz: general Delphi
In the more than 25 chapters of this programming
BUYER'S GUIDE
course you were presented with
some of the most common uses of
What's New and Hot ADO in a Delphi application: Connecting to a database using
TADOConnection, working with Tables and Queries, handling
Top Picks-Tool/VCL database exception, creating reports, etc.
Beginners Here Let's see whether you have learned something or you need to go
COM/OLE/ActiveX back to the beginning and read each chapter once more.
Database
Distrubuted comp. START THE DELPHI / ADO QUIZ

Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet More Delphi
Mathematics
Multimedia · Talk about Delphi Programming, real time. Start a chat now!
Delphi Pascal/IDE · Tutorials, articles, tech. tips by date: 2001|2000|1999|1998 or by
Screen saver dev. TOPIC.
· NEXT ARTICLE: Introducing Borland Delphi.
VCL Using A Beginner’s Guide to Delphi Programming: Chapter 1. What is Borland
VCL Write/Enhance Delphi? Where to download a free version, how to install and configure it.
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
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Kylix (D on Linux)
subscribe
Coding standards Got some code to share? Got a question? Need some help?
Recent Discussions
Books/Publications
Delphi Programming
Dev. Utilities Join these forum conversations
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects Delphi disadvantages compared to VS.Net
Humor and Fun Keep An Application Always On Top
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
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topic

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Delphi Programming

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Question: 1
Delphi Programming
Simply put, a database is
ADO DB programming best described as...
· Delphi for .NET
a) a collection b) a collection
· Free code APPs & of all files on a of files in a
VCL system directory
· A-Z Site Index c) a set of *.dbf d) a collection

files of related data
BUYER'S GUIDE
What's New and Hot Return to beginning
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX Email this page!
Database
Distrubuted comp.
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Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet
Mathematics
Multimedia
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
FAQs/Tips/Tricks
Free Code Projects
Humor and Fun
Icons and Glyphs
Jobs and Offers
Training/CD/Video
VCL & Tools
Subject Library

topic

Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our
newsletter.
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hundreds of sites
and more!
ESSENTIALS
Page 4: Seeking the start of Jpeg in the BLOB.
Delphi Programming OLE object type format - take three! • Page 1: BLOBs in Access
All this leaves us with nothing but to store the • Page 2: DBImage.NOT
· Free course: Delphi • Page 3: Streaming JPG
picture to a disk (as an ordinary binary file)
ADO DB programming and see what's inside it. • Page 5: Project's Code
One nice thing with picture files (formats) is Printer friendly version
· Delphi for .NET that all have some header that uniquely
· Free code APPs & identifies the image. The JPG picture file starts Join the Discussion
with the, so called, SOI marker that has the "Post your views and
VCL
value of $FFD8 hex. comments to this chapter of
· A-Z Site Index the free Delphi database
Programming Course"
This next line of code stores the value of the Discuss!
BUYER'S GUIDE Picture field to a file (BlobImage.dat) in the
working directory. Assign this code in the Related Resources
OnCreate event for the form, start the project • free DB Course.TOC
What's New and Hot
and remove the code. • Delphi DB articles
Top Picks-Tool/VCL
ADOTable1Picture.SaveToFile('BlobImage.dat');
Beginners Here
COM/OLE/ActiveX
Database Once we have the file, we can use some Hex editor to see it's content.
Distrubuted comp.
Game Programming
Graphics
Internet/Intranet

Mathematics
Multimedia
Delphi Pascal/IDE
Screen saver dev.
VCL Using
VCL Write/Enhance
Web Services
Windows/Shell/API
Kylix (D on Linux)
Coding standards
Books/Publications
Dev. Utilities
Would you believe this! MS Access stores the path of a linked OLE object
FAQs/Tips/Tricks as part of the object's definition in the OLE object field. Because the
Free Code Projects definition of OLE object storage is not documented (!? this is straight
from MS) there is no way to know what gets written before the actual
Humor and Fun image data.
Icons and Glyphs
Think about this twice. First: we'll need to seek to the 'FFD8' and read
Jobs and Offers the image from there. Second, the 'FFD8' might not always be at the
Training/CD/Video same position in the file. Conclusion: we need a function that returns the
position of the SOI marker for the JPG file stored as OLE object in an
VCL & Tools Access database.
The correct way - take four!

Subject Library Provided with the Blob type field our function should return the position
of the 'FFD8' string inside the ADOBlobStream. The ReadBuffer reads
All articles on this byte by byte from the stream. Each call to ReadBuffer moves the position
of the stream by one. When two bytes together (as hex values) result in
topic SOI marker the function returns the stream position. This is the function:
Stay up-to-date! function JpegStartsInBlob

Subscribe to our (PicField:TBlobField):integer;
newsletter. var
Enter Email Go! bS : TADOBlobStream;
buffer : Word;
Advertising hx : string;
begin
> Free Psychics
Result := -1;
bS := TADOBlobStream.Create(PicField, bmRead);
try
while (Result = -1) and
(bS.Position + 1 < bS.Size) do
begin

if hx = 'FF' then begin
if hx = 'D8' then Result := bS.Position - 2
else if hx = 'FF' then
bS.Position := bS.Position-1;
end; //if
end; //while
finally
bS.Free
end; //try
end;
Once we have the position of the SOI marker we use it to seek to it in

the ADOBlob stream.
uses jpeg;
...
procedure TForm1.btnShowImageClick(Sender: TObject);
var
Pic : TJpegImage;
begin
bS := TADOBlobStream.Create
(AdoTable1Picture, bmRead);
try
bS.Seek(JpegStartsInBlob(AdoTable1Picture),
soFromBeginning);
try
Pic.LoadFromStream(bS);
finally
Pic.Free;
end;
finally
bS.Free
end;
end;
Run the project and voila!

Who can now say that programming isn't FUN?
Note: in real code application we would have the code to read and
display the image from the current row in the AfterScroll event of a
TDataSet (that is in the ADOTable1AfterScroll event procedure).
AfterScroll occurs after an application scrolls from one record to another.
Take five!
That's it for this chapter. You can now store and display all your favorite
JPG pictures. In the last page of this article I have provided you with the
entire code (form1's unit); all the data assignment is placed in the
OnCreate event of the form. This ensures that all three components are
correctly linked - you don't need to use the Object Inspector at design-
time.
I agree, the chapter was not designed for beginners, but hey the World is
cruel. Another thing: did you mentioned that at the end you don't know
how to change (or add some new) picture in a table! We'll, that's whole
another story!
Next page > Project's Code > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

>> Chapter 4: Data browsing

More Delphi
The differences between a component Owner and its Parent - briefly explained.
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Filling some data

What to do with this "blank" database...I'll show you that in the

DB Course Next Chapter >>

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