How to connect to a SQL Server Database in C# (using ADO.NET data providers)

Learn how to connect to a SQL Server database using the ADO.NET data providers for C#.

Useful Links:
Code sample with Database script:

The Connection Strings Reference:

To download Visual Studio 2019:

Topics:
00:00 Intro
00:12 Getting started
00:22 Sample database: tables and data
01:02 Creating the sample application that will connect to the database
01:28 How to import the System.Data.SQLClient namespace?
02:10 The necessary classes: SQLConnection, SQLCommand, SQLDataReader.
02:48 What is a connection string?
03:35 How to add a connection string to your code?
04:02 Step 1: Create and configure a SQLConnection object.
05:41 Step 2: Create and configure a SQLCommand object.
07:08 Step 3: Retrieve data using a SQLDataReader object.
08:35 How to output retrieved data?
10:15 How to keep the console application open?
10:29 Run and test your application.
10:51 Thank you and Subscribe!

[itsjustshxrif]

yo thnx bro, you saved me. took me forever to find a video using the datareader

[dzeblemartin]

Great and clean explanation, you are the man. you do it all.

[iroquoispliskin]

Thank you for this perfect tutorial! I finally retrieved my data.

[mikesara]

You gained a new subscriber, thank you for sharing the knowledge this helps me a lot thorough schooling!

[attilaguba]

Clear and super understandable! could you make it with stored procedures CRUD ?

[B_Drive_K]

please upload next tutorial for converting this program to another format like TXT XML etc

[aniketkale]

Hey, great tutorial, loved it!!
But I didn't understand what to paste in front of "Server=" in the connectionString string.
Could you please help me with it?

[pavelschannel-alittleoutof]

You dragged the video out. You did correctly show how to connect to and extract data from SQL Server, however you could have done it in a shorter video.

[ravliiik]

thank you for tutorial and ur mother for u!

[naashchaa]

Did you seriously declare the string variables inside your while loop? what if that database has 10^9 entries?
R.I.P. memory...

[yashwantsingh]

SqlConnection class did not found in the current namespace? can you help me in this error