I am coming from the world of php, so please bear with me here.

In php, we open a connection to the db server with a connect function
(passing in the parameters).  Then we select the database with another
function call.  We then query the database with the SQL values in a sql
calling function and get back a resource (like a dataset).  That resource
can be expanded to get all the column values requested for as many rows as
are pulled back.

How is it done in ASP.NET.  I will have a button to click and that will
bring me to a method to access the database.  How do I formulate the
interrogation (knowing the SQL call) so that I can then set values of
specific controls in the form from the values I get in the method?  (I know
how to set them once I get them and I know SQL).  What I am looking for is a
the set of calls (like mysql_connect, mysql_select_db, mysql_query and so on
in php).

I know about a connection control as I have used the GridView.  However,
that gives the boundfields directly.

Shelly