Dynamically loading database schema information in .NET

Question

I am building a .NET application that given a connection string, at run time, needs to be able to retrieve information from the corresponding database schema, such as available columns, datatypes, and whether they are nullable.

What is the best way to accomplish this? Has anyone done anything like this before?

Many thanks, Nigel.

Answer 1

If your database is SQL Server, the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views will give you what you want.