Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported.
Him
Please explain what is the difference between different datasources for SQL (shown in the pic.)
I mean difference between Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL Server Database File
Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server means that you are establishing a network connection to a SQL Server — the database engine is running either on your machine or remotely and you are using the SQL Server as a service and are connecting to it. That server has the data and you just use a protocol to request operations to be performed.
Connecting using a Microsoft SQL Server database file (MDF) means that you want to use a database file and have a running SQL Server engine running locally use that MDF file. So, if you have SQL Express on your machine, when you create a connection to a MDF file, you’re essentially using the SQLExpress engine on your machine to serve up that MDF file (and the database contents) to you.
I admit I almost always connect to a SQL Server, as I’m not guaranteed to have the MDF file available in all environments. Plus, I usually don’t install SQL Express.
That’s how I understand the difference. Hope this helps!