Ways to store data in .NET

Question

I am looking for ways to store data in a Windows Forms application in .NET. I want to make the input data of a system persistent, so when I close my program and open it agai

Answer 1

There are dozens of different ways to store data. It completely depends on what data. Is it:

• Just a couple of configuration values? Use the built-in Settings library.
• Machine-wide configuration? Use the registry.
• Transactional? Use a relational database.
• Related but not transactional? Use a lightweight database like SQLite or SQLCE.
• Structured but not related? Use XML or JSON files.
• Somewhat structured and high in volume? Use a NoSQL solution like MongoDB.

And so on... there are different solutions for every storage requirement and many projects make use of more than one at a time.

Answer 2

An easy way would be to make use of XML.

Using XML in C# in the simplest way

Read/Write Xml document with FileStream

Answer 3

If your data is not mission critical (e.g. user preferences), you could just serialise your objects to file, and de-serialise them next time the app is loaded.

Answer 4

Examples? Do your homework yourself :)

Anyhow, possible ways are:

• Registry.
• Files. Like Microsoft Word does. Or like an ini file, like most games do for example for their settings
• Databaase

Which makes sense depends on what the application DOES and other scenarios around it. A fast answer is not really possible without knowing more.