[ Team LiB ]Recipe 1.1 Connecting to an ODBC Data Source
Problem
You want to access your data source using an ODBC provider from your .NET
application.
Solution
Use the ODBC .NET data provider to access data exposed through an ODBC driver.
The sample code contains a single event handler:
Connect Button.Click
Creates an OdbcDataAdapter and uses it to fill a DataTable with the Category
table from the Northwind sample database. The default view of the table is bound
to a data grid on the form.
The C# code is shown in Example 1-1
.
Example 1-1. File: OdbcConnectForm.cs
// Namespaces, variables, and constants
using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Odbc;

// . . .

private void connectButton_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
// Create the DataAdapter.
String sqlSelect = "SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName, Description " +
"FROM Categories";
OdbcDataAdapter da = new OdbcDataAdapter(sqlSelect,

Drag an OdbcConnection from the Data tab of the Toolbox onto a form or design
surface. Configure the ConnectionString property in the Properties window of the
OdbcConnection object that appears.
The .NET ODBC data provider requires a reference to the System.Data.Odbc namespace
in .NET Framework Version 1.1. In Version 1.0, the namespace is Microsoft.Data.Odbc.
Add a .NET Reference to Microsoft.Data.Odbc.dll for a .NET Framework Version 1.0
project.
The .NET ODBC .NET data provider ships with .NET Framework Version 1.1. The data
provider can be downloaded from http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads
for .NET
Framework Version 1.0.

[ Team LiB ]