Reading Data from SQL Server 2005 (Express Edition) 1

[hspage]

Greetings,

I am attempting to read data from a SQL Server 2005 table. I have the following code below but I'm obviously missing something. When I put a watch on the variable, "strData", the value is the following:

"System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader"

Code:

SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=HOME-PC\\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=Contacts;Integrated Security=True");
conn.Open();
SqlCommand sql = new SqlCommand();
sql.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblContacts";
sql.Connection = conn;
string strData;
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader rd;
rd = sql.ExecuteReader();
while (rd.Read()==true)
{
strData = rd.ToString();
}
rd.Close();

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jmeckley]

rd.ToString() returns the type of object that it is, a SqlDataReader. SqlDataReader returns an array of objects. you are trying to put that into a string.

instead you need to populate another object and cast the values. Whether that object is a DataSet/Table, ArrayList or a custom POCO (Customer class) is up to you.

also, do a search for good ado.net practices. there is alot of potential here for errors. the biggest one is you're missing a try/finally block to close/dispose of objects if there is an exception while connecting to the db.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.