ASP.NET Developer's JumpStart

Providing ADO.NET Connection Information

In order to create a connection to a data source, you'll need to supply a string containing a series of name/value pairs, providing the information that ADO.NET requires in order to locate and use the data. For example, if you want to connect to a SQL Server database using the System.Data.OleDb namespace, you might use a connection string like this:

Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=(local);
Initial Catalog=Northwind;User ID=sa;Password=;

Alternatively, to connect to a Microsoft Access (Jet) database, you might use a connection string like this:

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OleDb.4.0;
Data Source=C:\Northwind.mdb

If you're using SQL Server with integrated security, you won't want to pass in the user ID and password ...