What does signify when specifying a connectionstring?

Question

This answer to another question states:

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Do not forget to clear the connectionStrings first:

   
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Answer 1

The element removes all sections and section groups from your application that were defined earlier in the current configuration file or at a higher level in the configuration file hierarchy.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa903345(v=vs.71).aspx

so for example, if this was a child config file and the parent config file had some settings... you may not want them being inherited so you specify the clear flag to clear it and then use your settings.