The Database Provider

The first parameter or one of the parameters of a connection is the database provider. To specify the provider, you create its section with:

Provider=ProviderValue;

There are various providers available. The one used for Microsoft Access is:

Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0

If you had declared an OleDbConnection variable using the default constructor, to specify the provider, you can include a "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" string to your OleDbConnection.ConnectionString property.

Here is an example:

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Dim oleConn As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection

oleConn = New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection oleConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;"
End Sub

If you are using an OleDbConnection variable declared using the second constructor, you can include the provider in the connectionString argument of the constructor. Here is an example:

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Dim oleConn As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection

oleConn=NewSystem.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;")
Sub

If the connection was already established and you want to find out what provider it is using, you can get the value of the OleDbConnection.Provider property. Here is an example:

Dim oleConn As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

oleConn=NewSystem.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;") End Sub Private Sub btnEnquire_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnEnquire.Click

Dim strProvider As String = oleConn.Provider MsgBox(strProvider)
End Sub