Listing Installed ODBC Drivers | Enumerating and Maintaining Database Objects

Table of contents:

Problem

You need a list of the ODBC drivers installed on the computer running your code.

Solution

Consult the registry.

The sample code uses the Microsoft.Win32.Registry class to display a list of all installed ODBC drivers.

The C# code is shown in Example 10-17.

Example 10-17. File: OdbcDriversForm.cs

// Namespaces, variables, and constants
using System;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Win32;

// . . . 

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder( );

// Get the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREODBCODBCINST.INIODBC Drivers key.
RegistryKey keyLocalMachine =
 Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWAREODBCODBCINST.INIODBC Drivers", false);
string[] valueNames = keyLocalMachine.GetValueNames( );
for(int i = 0; i < valueNames.Length; i++)
 result.Append(valueNames[i] + Environment.NewLine);

resultTextBox.Text = result.ToString( );

Discussion

The .NET Framework classes that manipulate the registry are found in the Microsoft.Win32 namespace. The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREODBCODBCINST.INIODBC Drivers contains a value name for each installed ODBC driver.

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