How to Retrieve a Connection String from App.config in .NET Applications

---

Easier to maintain: You can manage your configuration settings independently of your code.

More secure: Sensitive data like database connection strings are not embedded within the source code.

Flexible for deployment: Different environments (development, staging, production) can have different settings without modifying the code.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this example, MyDbConnection is the name of the connection string, which you will use to retrieve the connection info programmatically.

Retrieving the Connection String

You can retrieve the connection string using the ConfigurationManager class from the System.Configuration namespace. Here's a simple example on how to do this in C:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this example:

We import the System.Configuration namespace.

We define the GetConnectionStringByName method that takes a connection string name as a parameter.

Using ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[name], we retrieve the connection string by its name.

If the connection string is found, it is returned, otherwise, null is returned.

Conclusion

With this knowledge, you can make your .NET applications more robust and easier to manage, all while keeping your sensitive connection details securely stored and accessible.