Re: Defining a Connection String in Windows XP

On 12/13/10 6:32 PM, ray joseph wrote:
>
> I used a System DSN and it worked.
> Now to figure out what to do with it.
> BTW, what are some of the considerations for choosing DSN types System,
> File, User?

all three do the same thing in the end, they specify a ODBC database
connection.

the system DSN is available to all users of that system.

the file DSN is just that, a file, that contains a few lines of text
with the DSN information, you can bundle it with your app, and you
reference it by the fully qualified path to the file.

a user DSN is only available to the user that defined it. for some
dorky reason, I don't think you can save the database password with
these ad it has to be specified when you use the connection

for various reasons, system DSN's are generally easier to use in
microsoft-land.