ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings Property

Definition

Gets the ConnectionStringsSection data for the current application's default configuration.

public:
 static property System::Configuration::ConnectionStringSettingsCollection ^ ConnectionStrings { System::Configuration::ConnectionStringSettingsCollection ^ get(); };
public static System.Configuration.ConnectionStringSettingsCollection ConnectionStrings { get; }
static member ConnectionStrings : System.Configuration.ConnectionStringSettingsCollection
Public Shared ReadOnly Property ConnectionStrings As ConnectionStringSettingsCollection

Property Value

The contents of the ConnectionStringsSection object for the current application's default configuration.

Exceptions

Examples

The following example shows how to use a connection string to read data from a database.

using System;  
using System.Configuration;  
using System.Data.SqlClient;  

namespace ConsoleApplication1  
{  
    class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            ReadProducts();  
        }  

        static void ReadProducts()  
        {  
            var connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["WingtipToys"].ConnectionString;  
            string queryString = "SELECT Id, ProductName FROM dbo.Products;";  
            using (var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))  
            {  
                var command = new SqlCommand(queryString, connection);  
                connection.Open();  
                using (var reader = command.ExecuteReader())  
                {  
                    while (reader.Read())  
                    {  
                        Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0}, {1}", reader[0], reader[1]));  
                    }  
                }  
            }  
        }  
    }  
}  
Imports System.Configuration  
Imports System.Data.SqlClient  
Module Module1  

    Sub Main()  
        ReadProducts()  
    End Sub  

    Sub ReadProducts()  
        Dim connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("WingtipToys").ConnectionString  
        Dim queryString = "SELECT Id, ProductName FROM dbo.Products;"  
        Using connection As New SqlConnection(connectionString)  
            Dim command = New SqlCommand(queryString, connection)  
            connection.Open()  

            Using reader As SqlDataReader = command.ExecuteReader()  
                While reader.Read()  
                    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0}, {1}", reader(0), reader(1)))  
                End While  
            End Using  
        End Using  
    End Sub  

End Module  

The previous example assumes your project has an App.config as shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>  
<configuration>  
    <startup>   
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />  
    </startup>  
    <connectionStrings>  
      <add name="WingtipToys" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDB)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=WingtipToys;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False" />  
    </connectionStrings>  
</configuration>  

Remarks

A ConnectionStringsSection object contains the contents of the configuration file's connectionStrings section.

Applies to

See also