Returning a single row

Question

I\'m trying to return a single row from a database:

using (connection = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[\"connection\"]))
{
    using (command         


        

Answer 1

Instead of:

 using (reader = command.ExecuteReader())
 {
      reader.Read();
      return reader["col_1"];
 }

You need to cast the reader["col_1"] to string, either reader["col_1"].ToString() or reader.GetString(0) like:

return reader.GetString(0);