Cross-Platform SqlClient

System.Data.SqlClient is cross-platform! This means you can now take advantage of its APIs to interact with a SQL Server database across OS X, Linux, and Windows.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Users

To use the library, you will need to first download and install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4 found here.

OSX and Linux Users

The previous version of SqlClient used its own networking layer implemented on top of Windows. Because .NET Core is cross-platform, SqlClient was changed to use the .NET networking layer to communicate with SQL Server. However, it is not feature-complete for OSX or Linux.

To use SqlClient on OSX or Linux, Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS) must be disabled in the connection string (it is enabled by default). Set it to false by including MultipleActiveResultSets=False; in your connectionString.

Additionally, connectivity to SQL Server is only possible via TCP.

Communication over Named Pipes, Shared Memory, or LocalDB is not supported yet.

Example connection string:

connectionString="Data Source=my-data-source;Initial Catalog=mydataBase;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;User Id=myUserName; Password=myPassword;"

Sample

Note: the following will compile cross-platform, but won't execute due to a dependency on a database which doesn't exist. You can swap out the connection string to point the data source, username, and password to something which matches your infrastructure.

C#:

using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace SqlClientTest
{
	public class Program
	{
		public void Main(string[] args)
		{
			string connectionString = 
			    "Data Source=<data_source_goes_here>;" +
			    "Initial Catalog=mydataBase;" +
			    "MultipleActiveResultSets=False;" + // Disables MARS
			    "User Id=myUserName; Password=myPassword;";
			    
			string sql = "select * from Dogs";
			
			List<Dog> dogs = new List<Dog>();
			
			using (var conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
			{
				conn.Open();
				
				using (var command = new SqlCommand(sql, conn))
				{
					var reader = command.ExecuteReader();
					while (reader.Read())
					{
						// Collect the values from the row in the Dog table!
						
						// Name is the first column 
						string name = reader.GetString(0);
						
						// IsShortHaired is the second column
						bool isShortHaired = reader.GetBoolean(1);
						
						// NumberOfLegs is the third column
						int numberOfLegs = reader.GetInt32(2);
						
						dogs.Add(new Dog(name, isShortHaired, numberOfLegs));
					}
				}
			}
			
			foreach (var dog in dogs)
			{
			    if (dog.IsShortHaired)
			    {
				    Console.WriteLine($"{dog.name} is short-haired and has {dog.NumberofLegs} legs!");
				}
			}
		}
	}
	
	public class Dog
	{
		public Dog(string name, bool isShortHaired, int numberOfLegs)
		{
			Name = name;
			IsShortHaired = isShortHaired;
			NumberOfLegs = numberOfLegs;
		}
		
		public string Name { get; set; }
		public bool IsShortHaired { get; set; }
		public int NumberOfLegs { get; set; }
	}
}

project.json:

{
	"dependencies": {
		"System.Runtime": "4.0.0-rc1-*",
		"System.Data.SqlClient": "4.0.0-beta-23409",
		"System.Collections":"4.0.0-rc1-*",
		"System.Console": "4.0.0-beta-23409"
	},
	"frameworks": {
		"dotnet55":{}
	}
}

To build:

$ dnu restore
$ dnu build