What's a good resource for grokking database connection strings?

Question

Often the most frustrating thing in starting a new database project or learning a new database is figuring out the magic incantation known as the "connection string".

Where are the good resources for understanding each database's connection string format?

Answer 1

Connection strings

Answer 2

Some tools will generate an SQL Connection String for you, eg MS Access or SQL Server DTS, once you've set up a dsn. You can then cut and paste this string into your App.

Answer 3

Something whose existence I only learned of recently is System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionStringBuilder in the .NET framework.

It saves you concatenating strings yourself, knows all the synonyms, allows you to extract values from existing strings, etc.

If you're using SQL Server and .NET, it's really handy.