How connection parameters work

When an application connects to a database, it uses a set of connection parameters to define the connection. Connection parameters include information such as the server name, the database name, and a user ID. A keyword-value pair (of the form parameter=value) specifies each connection parameter. For example, you specify the user ID connection parameter as follows:

UID=sa

Connection parameters passed as connection strings

Connection parameters are passed to the ASE ODBC driver as a connection string and are separated by semicolons:

parameter1=value1;parameter2=value2;...

In general, the connection string built by an application and passed to the driver does not correspond directly to the way a user enters the information. Instead, a user can fill in a dialog box, or the application can read connection information from an initialization file.