title: .Net Data Handling Suggestions
body: <p>I am just beginning to write an application. Part of what it needs to do is to run queries on a database of nutritional information. What I have is the USDA's <a href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=17478" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SR21 Datasets</a> in the form of flat delimited ASCII files.</p>
  
  <p>What I need is advice. I am looking for the best way to import this data into the app and have it easily and quickly queryable at run time. I'll be using it for all the standard things. Populating controls dynamically, Datagrids, calculations, etc. I will also need to do user specific persistent data storage as well. This will not be a commercial app, so hopefully that opens up the possibilities. I am fine with .Net Framework 3.5 so Linq is a possibility when accessing the data (just don't know if it would be the best solution or not). So, what are some suggestions for persistent storage in this scenario? What sort of gotchas should I be watching for? Links to examples are always appreciated of course. </p>