Although most of the time we don't need to know about XML or how to read or write the XML data, there are some times when that is precisely what we look for. These are the situations when we have to design data while the application is running. To put it another way, in ADO.NET we can use XML directly when we are working with metadata.
Datasets are represented as XML. The structure of the DataSet, the definition of tables, columns, data types, constraints, and so on are in the DataSet which is defined using an XML schema based on the XML schema definition language (XSD). Just as data contained by a DataSet can be loaded from and serialized as XML, the structure of the DataSet can be loaded from and serialized as XML Schema.
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