ActiveConnection Property

The ActiveConnection property on a Command or Recordset object indicates to which Connection object the specified Command or Recordset object currently belongs. This property sets or returns a String containing the definition for a connection or a Connection object. The default is a Null object reference.

command.ActiveConnection = connectionString
activeConnectionString = recordset.ActiveConnection
 

Remarks

The ActiveConnection property is used to determine the Connection object over which the specified Command object will execute or the specified Recordset will be opened.

For Command objects, the ActiveConnection property is read/write.

If you attempt to call the Execute method on a Command object before setting the ActiveConnection property to an open Connection object or valid connection string, an error occurs.

Under Microsoft® Visual Basic®, setting the ActiveConnection property to Nothing disassociates the Command object from the current Connection and causes the OLE DB Provider to release any associated resources on the data source. You can then associate the Command object with the same or another Connection object. Some providers allow you to change the ActiveConnection property setting from one Connection to another, without having to first set the property to Nothing.

Closing the Connection object with which a Command object is associated sets the ActiveConnection property to Nothing. Setting this property to a closed Connection object generates an error.

For open Recordset objects or for Recordset objects whose Source property is set to a valid Command object, the ActiveConnection property is read-only. Otherwise, it is read/write.

You can set the ActiveConnection property to a valid Connection object or to a valid connection string. In this case, the OLE DB Provider creates a new Connection object using this definition and opens the connection. Additionally, the provider may set this property to the new Connection object to give you a way to access the Connection object for extended error information or to execute other commands.

If the ActiveConnection parameter of the Open method is used to open a Recordset object, the ActiveConnection property will inherit the value of the argument.

If the Source property of the Recordset object is set to a valid Command object variable, the ActiveConnection property of the Recordset inherits the setting of the Command object's ActiveConnection property.

The information needed to establish a connection to a data source can be set in the ActiveConnection property of a Recordset object or passed as part of the Open method on a Recordset object in the ActiveConnection parameter. In either case, this information must be in a specific format for use with the Microsoft® OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM. This information can be a data source name (DSN) or a detailed connection string containing a series of argument=value statements separated by semicolons. ADO supports several standard ADO-defined arguments for the ActiveConnection property as follows:

The OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM also supports a number of provider-specific arguments, some of which will default to values in the registry. These arguments are as follows: