Read Microsoft Access Database in C#

Mahesh Chand

6y363.3k12100Article

C#ADO.NET AccessMicrosoft Access

12 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Guest User6y ago
Very informative
Mahesh Chand9y ago
OK finally, I updated this 18 years old article. Code still works :)
Ammar Shaukat10y ago
Good . this is was your First article amazing..
- Mahesh Chand10y ago
  Yes it was. That was year 2000. Actually, I start learning C# in Dec 1999 when they had an alpha version of C# compiler, not even beta.
jack the best11y ago
hi can you help me?how add you category for the products and on product frm show you a combox with all category?
Mahesh Chand14y ago
O wow! I wrote this article 12 or so years ago. When I just started learning C# and common database was Access.
sailaja m15y ago
is it possible connect to MS SQL Server from HTML Page using Javascript? Plz help me Thanks in advance
Rashid Chaki16y ago
Hi Mahesh bhai, I want to make web application to sent bulk email, id is in excel file. Please help me, you are the one can help. Thanks, Rashid Ahmedabad(gujrat) [email protected]
- Mahesh Chand16y ago
  Rashid, Post your questions on the forums. Unfortunately I do not have free time to write products. I just write articles when I have free time from my work. Good luck!
Dude16y ago
Hi, Lets say, the Access database that is used has a User & password property. How should I enter it? Thanx.
- Ehtesham m9y ago
  Might be this will help you..String connectionString; String user = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings. AppSettings["mappedname"]; String pass = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings. AppSettings["mappedkey"]; connectionString = "data source=myserver;initial catalog=northwind"; connectionString += ";user id=" + user; connectionString += ";password=" + pass; sqlConnection1.ConnectionString = connectionString; https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa984237(v=vs.71).aspx
patrick17y ago
I would love to see an updated publish of this article.

In this article, you’ll learn how to connect and read Microsoft Access 2003 or earlier versions (.mdb).

Note: Originally, this article was published on Jan 01, 2000. This is an updated article.

The code snippet in this article is a simple console application that connects with an Access 2000 database, reads data from a table, and displays it on the console. The database has a table named, Developer with two columns, Name and Address.

The .NET framework has two common approaches, ADO.NET and LINQ to read databases. ADO.NET uses the OLE-DB data provider to read a Microsoft Access database. The OLE-DB classes are defined in the System.Data.OleDb namespace. We must import the System.Data.OleDb namespace in our code using the following definition.

using System.Data.OleDb;

The following code is the complete list of the C# console app that connects with an Access database, opens a connection, reads data, and displays it on the system console.

The following code snippet adds a new row in the table. The INSERT SQL query is used to add a new row.

using System;
using System.Data.OleDb;
namespace AccessDBSample {
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
// Connection string and SQL query
string connectionString = @ "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Mahesh\Data\Dev.mdb";
string strSQL = "SELECT * FROM Developer";
// Create a connection
using(OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(connectionString)) {
// Create a command and set its connection
OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(strSQL, connection);
// Open the connection and execute the select command.
try {
// Open connecton
connection.Open();
// Execute command
using(OleDbDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader()) {
Console.WriteLine("------------Original data----------------");
while (reader.Read()) {
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", reader["Name"].ToString(), reader["Address"].ToString());
}
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
// The connection is automatically closed becasuse of using block.
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

// Add a new row
strSQL = "INSERT INTO Developer(Name, Address) VALUES ('New Developer', 'New Address')";
command = new OleDbCommand(strSQL, connection);
// Execute command
command.ExecuteReader();

The following code snippet updates rows that match with the WHERE condition in the query.

// Update rows
strSQL = "UPDATE Developer SET Name = 'Updated Name' WHERE Name = 'New Developer'";
command = new OleDbCommand(strSQL, connection);
command.ExecuteReader();

The following code snippet deletes rows that match with the WHERE condition.

// Delete rows
strSQL = "DELETE FROM Developer WHERE Name = 'Updated Name'";
command = new OleDbCommand(strSQL, connection);
command.ExecuteReader();

Note: Access 2013 or Access 2016 versions work differently. If you want to work with Access 2013, 2016 or Office 365 databases, visit this article: Connecting C# Application To MS Access Database