Linq to Sql DatabaseExists

Question

Hi....

Lets say i have a database in c:\database.mdf what is the difference between using context.DatabaseExists("c:\database.mdf") or just simply checking with File.exists("c:\database.mdf") ?

i ask this because i get strange behavior form DatabaseExists method : it tells me sometimes that c:\database.mdf exists but it's not there, because i manually deleted the file from windows explorer.

what am i missing ?

Answer 1

DatabaseExists actually tries to open a connection to the database. This means it must be a valid database.

FileExists only checks whether a file with that name exists, not whether it is valid.

You could create a .txt file and rename it database.mdf. FileExists will return true while DatabaseExists will return false.