Question

I have the following code to connect to a sql server compact edition 2008:

    private SqlConnection sqlConn;

    public void createConnection()
    {
        String connectionString = @"Data Source=C:\Projects\somefile.sdf;Persist Security Info=False";
        sqlConn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
        sqlConn.Open();
    }

However, I keep getting the following error when sqlConn.Open() is executed:

“A network-related or
instance-specific error occurred while
establishing a connection to SQL
Server. The server was not found or
was not accessible. Verify that the
instance name is correct and that SQL
Server is configured to allow remote
connections. (provider: SQL Network
Interfaces, error: 26 – Error Locating
Server/Instance Specified)”

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be? I can create a connection to the db in the database explorer but it doesn’t seem to work in code.

Answer 1

The Sql* classes in System.Data.SqlClient can only be used to connect to a regular SQL Server instance.

To connect to a SQL CE database, you need to create a SqlCeConnection object in System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll.