How can I use ODBC in a Windows Form?

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How can I use ODBC in a Windows Form?

Torquinian 21

I am using VS2022 and VB.

I have a Windows Forms project that currently Imports System.Data.sqlclient into each Form.

I want to gradually move away from sqlclient to odbc, and my idea is to do it one Windows Form at a time as I hope to be able to Import the relevant System.Data namespace as I alter each Form.

The problem that I am having is that when I replace Imports System.Data.SqlClient with Imports System.Data.ODBC I am informed that the import is un-necessary and the places in the code that accesses the database are shown as errors.

How can I use ODBC in my Windows Forms?

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Answer 1

Olaf Helper 47,416

I am informed that the import is un-necessary and the places in the code that accesses the database are shown as errors.

Just changing your namespace don't changes your data access code; you have to modify that as well and therefore you get the error messages.

E.g. instead of SqlConnection you have to use OdbcConnection class, see

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.data.odbc.odbcconnection?view=net-9.0-pp

Torquinian 21 Reputation points

2025-06-03T13:25:56.9766667+00:00
Hi Olaf,

Thanks for that link, it has allowed me to get much further, but as usual there are two steps forward and one step back.

I am getting an error when I try to open the connection.

The MsgBox displays the ODBCConnectionString as shown below.

Data Source=MYPC\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=MYDB;Integrated Security=False;User Id=MYNAME;Password=MYPW;providerName=System.Data.odbc;connectionstring='dsn=MYDBDataSource'

The code that I am using is below:-

Using conn As New OdbcConnection() Try conn.ConnectionString = ODBCConnectionString MsgBox(ODBCConnectionString) conn.Open()

The error message is "Data Source name not found and no default driver specified".

I have tried with " and ' around the connectionstring parameter, as well as with no quotes and without the dsn=.

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How can I use ODBC in a Windows Form?

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