.Net Howto - Connecting to a Database

The following example illustrates how to connect to a database using a connectionstring. We’re also using a datareader to access multiple rows, and a scalar to access a single value.

        Dim objConn As New SqlConnection        Dim objComm As New SqlCommand        Dim objReader As SqlDataReader        Dim strText As String

        Try            objConn.ConnectionString = "server=(local);database=northwind;integrated security=SSPI"            objConn.Open()            MessageBox.Show("Connection Success!")            objComm.Connection = objConn            objComm.CommandType = CommandType.Text            objComm.CommandText = "SELECT @@VERSION"            MessageBox.Show(objComm.ExecuteScalar())            objComm.CommandText = "SELECT companyname FROM customers ORDER BY companyname"            objReader = objComm.ExecuteReader            'read must be done first to prime the data reader.             'if trying to access item(0) prior to doing a read an exceptionwill occur!            While objReader.Read                strText += objReader.Item(0) + NewLine            End While            MessageBox.Show(strText)        Catch objError As Exception            MessageBox.Show(objError.Message)        End Try

As you can see this is a fairly simple example using the Northwind database. More info will be soon to come on creating your own connectionstrings, etc.

Leave a Reply