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Use a MySQL database in a Windows app

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This article contains the steps required to enable working with a MySQL database from a Widows app. It also contains a small code snippet showing how you can interact with the database in code.

Set up your solution

This example can be used with any WPF, Windows Forms, WinUI 3, and UWP project to connect your Windows app to a MySQL database. Follow these steps to install the package and try out the example code to read data from an existing MySQL database.

Open the Package Manager Console (View -> Other Windows -> Package Manager Console). Use the command Install-Package MySql.Data to install the NuGet package for the MySQL core class library. This will allow you to programmatically access MySQL databases.

Test your connection using sample code

The following is an example of connecting to and reading from a remote MySQL database. Note that the IP address, credentials, and database name will need to be customized.

const string M_str_sqlcon = "server=10.xxx.xx.xxx;user id=foo;password=bar;database=baz";
using (var mySqlCn = new MySqlConnection(M_str_sqlcon))
{
    using (var mySqlCmd = new MySqlCommand("select * from table1", mySqlCn))
    {
        mySqlCn.Open();
        using (MySqlDataReader mySqlReader = mySqlCmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection))
        {
            while (mySqlReader.Read())
            {
                Debug.WriteLine($"{mySqlReader.GetString(0)}:{mySqlReader.GetString(1)}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Important

In production applications, connection information should be stored securely in app configuration (see Adding Azure App Configuration by using Visual Studio Connected Services). Connection strings and other secrets should not be hard-coded.

See also