OdbcConnectionStringBuilder Class

The connection string builders let developers programmatically create syntactically correct connection strings, and parse and rebuild existing connection strings, using properties and methods of the class. The connection string builder provides strongly typed properties corresponding to the known key/value pairs allowed by ODBC connections, and developers can add arbitrary key/value pairs for any other connection string values.

Developers needing to create connection strings as part of applications can use the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder class to build and modify connection strings. The class also makes it easy to manage connection strings stored in an application configuration file. OdbcConnectionStringBuilder performs checks only for the limited set of known key/value pairs. Therefore, this class can be used to create invalid connection strings. The following table lists the specific known keys together with their corresponding properties within the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder class, and their default values. Besides these specific values, developers can add any key/value pairs to the collection that is contained within the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder instance.

If any value (other than the Driver value) within the connection string contains a semicolon (;), the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder surrounds the value with quotation marks in the connection string. In order to avoid this issue with the Driver value that frequently contains a semicolon, the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder class always surrounds this value with braces. The ODBC specification indicates that driver values that contain semicolons must be surrounded with braces, and this class handles this for you.

The Item property handles attempts to insert malicious code. For example, the following code, using the default Item property (the indexer, in C#) correctly escapes the nested key/value pair.

[Visual Basic]

Dim builder As _
 New System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionStringBuilder
' Take advantage of the Driver property. 
builder.Driver = "SQL Server"
builder("Server") = "MyServer;NewValue=Bad"
Console.WriteLine(builder.ConnectionString)

[C#]

System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionStringBuilder builder = 
  new System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionStringBuilder();
// Take advantage of the Driver property. 
builder.Driver = "SQL Server";
builder["Server"] = "MyServer;NewValue=Bad";
Console.WriteLine(builder.ConnectionString);

The result is the following connection string that handles the invalid value in a safe manner:

Driver={SQL Server};Server="MyServer;NewValue=Bad"

The following console application builds connection strings for several ODBC databases. First, the example creates a connection string for a Microsoft Access database. It then creates a connection string for an IBM DB2 database. The example also parses an existing connection string, and demonstrates various ways of manipulating the contents of the connection string.

Note
This example includes a password to demonstrate how OdbcConnectionStringBuilder works with connection strings. In your applications, we recommend that you use Windows Authentication. If you must use a password, do not include a hard-coded password in your application.

using System.Data.Odbc;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        OdbcConnectionStringBuilder builder = 
            new OdbcConnectionStringBuilder();
        builder.Driver = "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)";

        // Call the Add method to explicitly add key/value
        // pairs to the internal collection.
        builder.Add("Dbq", "C:\\info.mdb");
        builder.Add("Uid", "Admin");
        builder.Add("Pwd", "pass!word1");

        Console.WriteLine(builder.ConnectionString);
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Clear current values and reset known keys to their
        // default values.
        builder.Clear();

        // Pass the OdbcConnectionStringBuilder an existing 
        // connection string, and you can retrieve and
        // modify any of the elements.
        builder.ConnectionString =
            "driver={IBM DB2 ODBC DRIVER};Database=SampleDB;" +
            "hostname=SampleServerName;port=SamplePortNum;" +
            "protocol=TCPIP;uid=Admin;pwd=pass!word1";

        Console.WriteLine("protocol = " 
            + builder["protocol"].ToString());
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Modify existing items.
        builder["uid"] = "NewUser";
        builder["pwd"] = "Pass@word2";

        // Call the Remove method to remove items from 
        // the collection of key/value pairs.
        builder.Remove("port");

        // Note that calling Remove on a nonexistent item does not
        // throw an exception.
        builder.Remove("BadItem");
        Console.WriteLine(builder.ConnectionString);
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Setting the indexer adds the associated value, if 
        // necessary.
        builder["NewKey"] = "newValue";
        Console.WriteLine(builder.ConnectionString);

        Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to finish.");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

Other Resources