Please Help!!!

I'm running Visual Studio 2005 (VB) with SQL 2005 installed. I tried to add a SQL database and it says SQL express is not installed. And here I was thinking that SQLexpress was only for VS express.

I do not want to use that old crippled handicap SQL express database... how do I use the regular SQL database?

Thanks.

For starters, SQL Express is hardly OLD, it came out at the same time as SQL Server 2005 and is based on the SQL Server 2005 engine. Secondly SQL Express is installed by default with any version of Visual Studio. This doesn't mean you can't have other versions of SQL Server installed on your machine.

Now to answer your question, I think the problem is probably to do with what you are selecting when you attempt to add the database. If you select "Microsoft SqlServer Database File", then VS will attempt to use a Sql Express User Instance which does require SQL Express to be installed, as it is a SQL Express ONLY feature. You need to select the "Microsoft SQL Server" entry, and connect to the appropriate instance of SQL Server.

Drae wrote:

I do not want to use that old crippled handicap SQL express database... how do I use the regular SQL database?

Thanks.

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It's sad, but I don't think SQLX comes with SQL 2005. Perhaps you can guide me in my moment of darkness...

After creating a project: File| New Project| Windows Application

I select: Project| Add New Item| SQL Database| Add

Error: Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function properly.

I do not see how I can select SQL 2005 but I would be happy to learn how.

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Attaching mdf files is a SQL express only feature called "user instances". A user instance database is for localhost connections only.

You can download SQL express for free.

To connect in a more generic way use View|Server Explorer.

Then click the connect icon. You can connect almost any database.

Karl Tarbet

|||Or just select Tools|Connect To Database and then select Microsoft SQL Server from the list|||

SQLexpress is limited to 4GB, 1CPU, 1GB RAM... which would mean I would have to write code to manage several 4GB DBs and I have a problem with writing code that would have to constantly examine the DB if its nearing 4GB to open a new DB to add records...

Or what happens if you add a record that breaks the 4GB limit... do you crash... and then burn?

|||Drae, if you are at all concerned about reaching the limits placed SQL Express, then you are correct, you should be using a higher SKU of the SQL Server engine. I think it would be counter productive to spend development time attempting to code around the limits of SQL Express, and if you already have appropriately licensed SQL Server to deploy to, then there is no issue.|||

Sql express work with vb professional...

Sql server 2005 work with visual studio team....ok?

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Karl Tarbet wrote:

Attaching mdf files is a SQL express only feature called "user instances". A user instance database is for localhost connections only.

So, are you saying that SQL Standard does not have the "user instances" feature; that this feature is only in SQL Express. If so, your reasoning doesn't stand: You can use SQL standard in a localhost connection, so why can't you have a "user instance" with it?

More to the point, someone needs to answer the REAL question: Is it possible to create a database from within Visual Studio using SQL Standard (or higher) (i.e., not Express)?

(In other words, the question is not about creating a connection to a database, but creating the database itself!!)

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dagilleland, I don't think you quite understand the concept of user instances. Firstly let me state for the record that SQL Server Express or Standard editions will work quite happily and allow you to create and attach to databases from within any version of visual studio 2005. User instances is more about the way in which an end user attaches to the database while using your application. The concept of a user instance implies that an instance of the SQL Server process (sqlservr.exe) is actually spawned off from the parent instance and run under the context of the user that is running the application instead of the service account that would normaly run SQL Server. This feature is ONLY available if you are using SQL Server Express.

For a more detail explaination of user instances and why you might want to use them Roger Wolter wrote a really great article on msdn http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsse/html/sqlexpuserinst.asp