Code Snippets

VB.NET Source Code

Welcome to Dream.In.Code
	Become a VB.NET Expert! Join 148,759 VB.NET Programmers for FREE! Get instant access to thousands of VB.NET experts, tutorials, code snippets, and more! There are 1,719 people online right now. Registration is fast and FREE... Join Now! Chat LIVE With a VB.NET Expert

Get connection string from app.config

I use this function in my applications to retrieve the connection string from the app.config file. It is especially handy in the application I'm working on now as there are 2 databases it can connect to.

Submitted By: PsychoCoder

Actions:

Rating:

Views: 12,309

Language: VB.NET

Last Modified: August 2, 2007

Instructions: Store your connection stirng in the app.config like this:

< connectionStrings >
< add name="YourName"
connectionString="Persist Security Info=False;Data Source=Database_Name;Initial Catalog=Table_Name;Integrated Security=SSPI;Trusted_Connection=TRUE;Application Name=Application_Name"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
< /connectionStrings >
To use:

Dim SqlConnection As New SqlConnection("GetConnectionString("YourName"))

Snippet

Public Shared Function GetConnectionString(ByVal strConnection As String) As String
'Declare a string to hold the connection string
Dim sReturn As New String("")
'Check to see if they provided a connection string name
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(strConnection) Then
'Retrieve the connection string fromt he app.config
sReturn = ConfigurationManager. & _
ConnectionStrings(strConnection).ConnectionString
Else
'Since they didnt provide the name of the connection string
'just grab the default on from app.config
sReturn = ConfigurationManager. & _
ConnectionStrings("YourConnectionString").ConnectionString
End If
'Return the connection string to the calling method
Return sReturn
End Function