6.1.1 The MySqlConnection Object

For your MySQL Connector/NET application to connect to a MySQL database, it must establish a connection by using a MySqlConnection object.

The MySqlConnection constructor takes a connection string as one of its parameters. The connection string provides necessary information to make the connection to the MySQL database. The connection string is discussed more fully in Chapter 4, Connector/NET Connections. For a list of supported connection string options, see Section 4.5, “Connector/NET Connection Options Reference”.

The following code shows how to create a connection object/

using System;
using System.Data;

using MySql.Data;
using MySql.Data.MySqlClient;

public class Tutorial1
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string connStr = "server=localhost;user=root;database=world;port=3306;password=******";
        MySqlConnection conn = new MySqlConnection(connStr);
        try
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Connecting to MySQL...");
            conn.Open();
            // Perform database operations
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        }
        conn.Close();
        Console.WriteLine("Done.");
    }
}

When the MySqlConnection constructor is invoked, it returns a connection object, which is used for subsequent database operations. Open the connection before any other operations take place. Before the application exits, close the connection to the database by calling Close on the connection object.

Sometimes an attempt to perform an Open on a connection object can fail, generating an exception that can be handled using standard exception handling code.

In this section you have learned how to create a connection to a MySQL database, and open and close the corresponding connection object.