Connection parameters and connection strings

When connecting to a database, the client application uses a set of connection parameters to define the connection. Connection parameters specify information such as the database server name, the database name, and the user ID. For a list of all supported connection parameters, see Connection parameters.

Each connection parameter specifies a keyword-value pair of the form parameter=value. The following example specifies the password connection parameter for the default password:

PWD=sql

Connection parameters passed as connection strings

Connection parameters are assembled into connection strings. In a connection string, a semicolon separates each connection parameter:

parameter1=value1;parameter2=value2;...

For example:

UID=DBA;PWD=sql;Host=demo12;DatabaseName=demo;ServerName=myserver

Generally, the connection string that is built by an application and passed to the interface library does not correspond directly to the way users enter information. Instead, a user may fill in multiple fields in a connection window, or the application may read connection information from an initialization file.

Many of the SQL Anywhere utilities accept a connection string as the -c option and pass the connection string unchanged to the interface library. The following example is a typical Backup utility (dbbackup) command line:

dbbackup -c "HOST=myhost;DBN=demo;UID=DBA;PWD=sql;ServerName=demo12" SQLAnybackup

Representing connection strings in the documentation

In the SQL Anywhere documentation, connection string examples can be represented in the following form:

parameter1=value1
parameter2=value2
...

This format is equivalent to the following connection string:

parameter1=value1;parameter2=value2

In your application, you must enter a connection string with the parameter settings separated by semicolons.