A reusable connection class to a database

[bhumber]

I want my code to call a reusable class to connect to a database. I can't think of a way to write where it is genric. I know the connection string may change, but for the most part the code should be the same. Know any good articles I could read?

[TRScheel]

I had the same issue you had a few months back. I was sick of writing something similiar each time I needed to connect to the SQL server (That and I absolutely HATE copy/pasting code).

What I did was something like this:

-Classified a SQL item class

-Classified a SQL return collection class (contains a list of item's and code to work on them)

-Classified a few generic SQL calls (insert, request, integer returns, etc) and made them flexible enough to change with differences in the parameters

I could walk you through the same process I went through if you'd like

[bhumber]

Yes please walk me through the process, I'm not sure what Classified a SQL item class means, so by all means.

Brent

[TRScheel]

Yes please walk me through the process, I'm not sure what Classified a SQL item class means, so by all means.

Brent

Alright, I assume you have a few functions already that do work on your database. What you need to do now is find their similiarities. If you'd like, I can help you with this process if you post code.

** NOTE ** Take out any:

Websites/Address
Usernames
Passwords
Anything else that might be unwise to post on the internet.

____________________

When doing my code, I noticed that there were a few basic implementations. I would either:

A) Request data
B) Request a data reader
C) Request a scalar
D) Insert a row

(There is more you can do, but those were the four implementations I did for that project)

Once done with that, I took apart each item, and realized that fundamentally they were the same. The only difference lies in how they reacted with the Sql objects. I tore out the creation of the SqlConnection and SqlCommand objects, and created seperate functions only for the different actions I would do on them, not on the creation / disposal of them.