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SqlConnection.ConnectionTimeout Property

Gets the time to wait while trying to establish a connection before terminating the attempt and generating an error.

Namespace: System.Data.SqlClient
Assembly: System.Data (in system.data.dll)

public override int ConnectionTimeout { get; }
/** @property */
public int get_ConnectionTimeout ()

public override function get ConnectionTimeout () : int

Not applicable.

Property Value

The time (in seconds) to wait for a connection to open. The default value is 15 seconds.
Exception type Condition

ArgumentException

The value set is less than 0.

You can set the amount of time a connection waits to time out by using the ConnectTimeout or Connection Timeout keywords in the connection string. A value of 0 indicates no limit, and should be avoided in a ConnectionString because an attempt to connect waits indefinitely.

The following example creates a SqlConnection and sets the Connection Timeout to 30 seconds in the connection string. The code opens the connection and displays the ConnectionTimeout property in the console window.

private static void OpenSqlConnection()
{
    string connectionString = GetConnectionString();
    using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
    {
        connection.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("State: {0}", connection.State);
        Console.WriteLine("ConnectionTimeout: {0}",
            connection.ConnectionTimeout);
    }
}

static private string GetConnectionString()
{
    // To avoid storing the connection string in your code, 
    // you can retrieve it from a configuration file, using the 
    // System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings property 
    return "Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;"
        + "Integrated Security=SSPI;Connection Timeout=30";
}

Windows 98, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows CE, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.0
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Annotations FAQ
ConnectionTimeout and CommandTimeout
The value of ConnectionTimeout property (settable through the connection string, for example) does not appear to propagate to the CommandTimeout property on the command. So, just setting a timeout in the connection string to a large value would not have any effect if a SqlCommand is used in code since its default will override the connection timeout.