Connection String issues in WPF

Question

I have just completed my first project in WPF using C# and MS SQL 2008 express. I have used Visual Studio 2010. What I have right now is a class `conn.cs' that has a method that returns me the connection string as and when I require. Also I just noticed that I have an App.Config file that also has a connection string defined there (both strings refer to the same database).

My conn.cs

class conn
    {
        public string get_connection()
        {
            string conn_string = @"Data Source=.\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=msp;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False";
            return conn_string;
        }
    }

App.Config

<connectionStrings>
        <add name="msp.Properties.Settings.mspConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source=.\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=msp;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

I want to know two things now.

How can I fetch the Connection String from the App.Config? I need to do this then, I will fetch the string in my conn.cs from there, and then, I will just change the connection string in the app.config as and when required.
Also tell me, is it possible to set connection string at run time? I want the user to browse to the database (.mdf) file on First Run and then the connection string should get generated and saved in app.config. I can then easily pick it up from there and use.

Please provide suggestions.

RJ Moeller · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-13 08:25:35Z

1

You should be able to get access your connection string using this:

string connString = Properties.Settings.Default.mspConnectionString;

(when typing Properties.Settings.Default you should automatically see your choices in the Member List)

You can of course set the connection string at runtime; it is basically just another string. I would not recommend hard-coding the connection string; though.

You might want to give the SqlConnectionStringBuilder class a try; see this MSDN article for example. But actually I never used it so far except for a few experiments here and there although I literally only do database-driven software...

answered Mar 13, 2013 at 8:25

RJ Moeller

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3 Comments

Samarth Agarwal Over a year ago

I will give it a try and will post here soon.

Samarth Agarwal Over a year ago

Can I SET the ConnectionString in app.config at runtime? I guess the above code allows only getting.

RJ Moeller Over a year ago

Never tried that actually; as a ConnectionString is always an ApplicationSetting and not a UserSetting I do not think you can save it during runtime. But you could try creating a String UserSetting and use this for storing the connection string; these can be overwritten and saved.

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