sql server express connection string

Question

Is there a difference between sql server connection string and the express vesion?!

Answer 1

By default (though I don't recommend it¹), Sql Express is installed as a named instance. That means you must connect like Server=servername.com\SQLEXPRESS as opposed to just Server=servername.com.

As always, connectionstrings.com has the goodies.

¹ I don't recommend named instances because they run on a different port, which makes firewalling a PITA. Also, it makes little sense to me to run more than 1 MSSQL Server on a computer when you could just host multiple databases instead - so I'm not really sure what the point is.