---
title: "Advanced Dataset Helper Classes"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/advanced-dataset-helper-classes.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/advanced-dataset-helper-classes.html"
published: "2003-04-30T09:34:00"
updated: "2003-04-30T09:34:00"
tags: [".Net Original"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "While Trying to help my wife find material regarding dynamically creating tables at runtime, I stumbled across a very nice group of articles , All about Dataset helper Classes doinf various cool things with the dataset.…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Advanced Dataset Helper Classes

By Roy Osherove April 30, 2003 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

**Historical article** · Originally published April 30, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

While Trying to help my wife find material regarding dynamically creating tables at runtime, I stumbled across a [very nice group of articles](http://support.microsoft.com/common/canned.aspx?R=d&H=ADO.NET%20DataSetHelper%20Articles&LL=kbadonet&Sz=kbhowto%20and%20datasethelper%20and%20kbadonet), All about Dataset helper Classes doinf various cool things with the dataset. I heartly recommend reading this and getting some ideas. I Havn't really combed through all of it but it looks promising. (btw, they all have a VB.NET example as well)

Here's a snip of it.

"

<table dir="ltr"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/a1928ae7_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_blue_bullet.gif"></td><td><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326176"><em>HOW TO: Implement a DataSet SELECT DISTINCT Helper Class in Visual C# .NET</em></a></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/875e43fe_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_1ptrans.gif"></em></td><td><div id="srchdesc" name="srchdesc"><em>This step-by-step article illustrates how to implement and how to use a DataSetHelper class that includes sample code to create a DataTable object that contains the unique values of a column of another DataTable object. To do this, you use the...</em></div></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/a1928ae7_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_blue_bullet.gif"></em></td><td><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325938"><em>HOW TO: Implement a DataSet CREATE TABLE Helper Class in Visual C# .NET</em></a></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/875e43fe_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_1ptrans.gif"></em></td><td><div id="srchdesc" name="srchdesc"><em>This step-by-step article describes how to implement and how to use a DataSetHelper class that includes sample code to create a table from a comma-delimited list of field names and data types. This article includes a second method so that you can also...</em></div></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/a1928ae7_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_blue_bullet.gif"></em></td><td><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326009"><em>HOW TO: Implement a DataSet SELECT INTO Helper Class in Visual C# .NET</em></a></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/875e43fe_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_1ptrans.gif"></em></td><td><div id="srchdesc" name="srchdesc"><em>This step-by-step article describes how to implement and how to use a DataSetHelper class that includes sample code to create a DataTable object from an existing DataTable definition and to copy records that are sorted and filtered from the source...</em></div></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/a1928ae7_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_blue_bullet.gif"></em></td><td><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326080"><em>HOW TO: Implement a DataSet JOIN helper class in Visual C# .NET</em></a></td></tr><tr><td><em><img alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://osherove.com/img/wb/875e43fe_support.microsoft.com_library_images_support_1ptrans.gif"></em></td><td><div id="srchdesc" name="srchdesc"><em>This step-by-step article describes how to implement and how use a DataSetHelper class that includes sample code to create a DataTable object from two or more related DataTable definitions and to copy records that are sorted and filtered from the...</em></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

"

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- May 1, 2003

    ### [More VS.NET Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/1/more-vsnet-tips-amp-tricks.html)

- Apr 30, 2003

    ### [A VS.NET 2003 Registry Tweaker Don Could Use](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/a-vsnet-2003-registry-tweaker-don-could-use.html)

- Apr 28, 2003

    ### [ASP.NET Authentication Question + Answer](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/28/aspnet-authentication-question-answer.html)

- Apr 27, 2003

    ### [More Debugger Problems: aspnet\_regiis does not work on Windows 2003 Server](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/27/more-debugger-problems-aspnet_regiis-does-not-work-on-window.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

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### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/