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accessing-user-defined-types-in-ado-net.md

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title Accessing User-Defined Types in ADO.NET
description UDTs, written in .NET Framework CLR languages, allow a SQL Server database to store objects and custom data structures. In ADO.NET, a provider exposes UDTs.
author rwestMSFT
ms.author randolphwest
ms.date 03/19/2026
ms.service sql
ms.subservice clr
ms.topic reference
helpviewer_keywords
ADO.NET [CLR integration]
UDTs [CLR integration], ADO.NET
user-defined types [CLR integration], ADO.NET

Access user-defined types in ADO.NET

[!INCLUDE SQL Server]

User-defined types (UDTs) are written using any of the languages supported by the [!INCLUDE dnprdnshort-md] common language runtime (CLR) that produce verifiable code. This includes [!INCLUDE c-sharp-md] and [!INCLUDE visual-basic-md] .NET. UDTs allow objects and custom data structures to be stored in a [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion] database.

The data is exposed as public members of a .NET Framework class or structure, and behaviors are defined by methods of the class or structure. A UDT can be used as the column definition of a table, as a variable in a [!INCLUDE tsql] batch, or as an argument of a [!INCLUDE tsql] function or stored procedure.

In ADO.NET, the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient provider exposes UDTs in the following ways:

  • Through the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader as an object.
  • Through the SqlDataReader as raw bytes.
  • As a parameter of a Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter object.

In this section

Article Description
Retrieve user-defined type (UDT) data in ADO.NET Describes how to retrieve UDT data and how to specify parameters.
Update user-defined type (UDT) columns with DataAdapters Describes how to work with UDTs in a DataSet and how to update UDT data using a DataAdapter.

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