The last days I've been ploughing through loads and loads of code, including lots and lots of database queries. I totally agree with Brendan, all query results should end up in typed datasets. But in an early stage of the development proces, still figuring out what data I really need, that dataset isn't available yet. When previewing data in VS (right click your data-adapter) you can preview in an untyped dataset.
Discovered this feature only recently, it is well hidden. When you scroll the target dataset dropdown up the untyped dataset pops up. Very well hidden..
<Update>You can also do it the sloppy way, just hit fill dataset whatever target schema is selected. The dialog will create new entries for every table it found and display all data it found in that table.</update>
Peter