Is there any simple way to compare connection strings without parsing it myself?

Question

I need to be able to compare two different connection strings together and identify whether or not they are the same info. I cannot do a simple string comparison, because the pr

Answer 1

To get a collection of the ConnectionString properties, you can assign the ConnectionString to TADOConnection (without actually connecting to the DB) and use TADOConnection.Properties collection (collection item is ADOInt.Property_) e.g.:

ADOConnection.Properties.Get_Item('Data Source')

You should probably compare specific properties to determine if the connection is set to a specific data store via a specific provider. e.g.:
Provider, Data Source, Initial Catalog, User ID \ Password (optional).

There are many properties that you might want to ignore depending on the provider e.g:
Workstation ID, Persist Security Info, Use Procedure for Prepare, Auto Translate, etc...

Here is an example how to iterate the TADOConnection properties collection:

var
  ADOConnection: TADOConnection;
  PropName, PropValue: WideString;
  I: Integer;

  ADOConnection := TADOConnection.Create(nil);
  try
    ADOConnection.ConnectionString := 'Provider=MSDASQL.1;Password=secret;Data Source=127.0.0.1;User ID=user;Initial Catalog=mycatalog';
    for I := 0 to ADOConnection.Properties.Count - 1 do
    begin
      // Properties.Item[I] is ADOInt.Property_
      PropName := ADOConnection.Properties.Item[I].Name;
      PropValue := VarToWideStr(ADOConnection.Properties.Item[I].Value);
      ShowMessage(Format('%s=%s', [PropName, PropValue]));
    end;
  finally
    ADOConnection.Free;
  end;

There might be much more properties that are added to/changed in the ConnectionString after TADOConnection was connected to the DB, so you need to take this into account.