Question

I use Visual Basic 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. I have my database and my table and i made the connection (at least i think i did) in VB using only the interface.

What i want to know is how to get data from the database and use it into my VB project. I have of course searched for solutions already but the differences i find only confuse me more. What i need to know are the basics, the tools/objects and procedures to retrieve the data.

What i try to do at the moment is make a simple selection and put that data into a listbox right when the program starts, like this:

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        SqlConnection1.Open()



        SqlConnection1.Close()

    End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

1) Create your connection string

Dim connectionString As String = "Data Source=localhost;........."

2) Connect to your Database

Dim connection As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
conn.Open()

3) Create a Command and the query

Dim command As New SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM Product", connection)
Dim reader As SqlDataReader = command.ExecuteReader()  //Execute the Query

4) Retrieve your result. There are several ways

Dim dt As New DataTable()
dt.Load(reader)

'Close the connection
connection.Close()

5) Bind to your list box

myListBox.ItemSource = dt

Full code here

Using connection As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
    Dim command As New SqlCommand("Select * from Products", connection)
    command.Connection.Open()
    SqlDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader()
 End Using

For more info

• SQLCommand