Something is amiss with my connection string

[weirddemon]

I've been using a SQLCE database for some of my smaller projects, but decided to use a normal SQL database for a new project that is going to contain a large amount of information.

Since I realize that the connection strings for a SQLCE database and a SQL database, I decided to go to connectionstrings.com to find out what needs to be used for SQL.

I found this:

Data Source=myServerAddress;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;

Although it does give me the proper string, it doesn't really give a good explanation of how to apply it.

Originally, I tried setting the Data Source to the location of my database, which is local for now. Then I set the Initial Catalog to my database name. There isn't a password or user ID for the database so I didn't include those:

Dim connection As New SqlConnection("Server=C:\Users\Ernest\Desktop\; Data Source=dbCredentials.mdf;")

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

[weirddemon]

I didn't realize that VS automatically created connection string for me. It turns out that it is this:

Dim connection As New SqlConnection("Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=C:\Users\Ernest\Desktop\dbCredentials.mdf;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True")

Now that the connection error is gone, I have another error. The code below is being used from a post JMC made a little while back to validate login credentials:

Dim connection As New SqlConnection("Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=C:\Users\Ernest\Desktop\dbCredentials.mdf;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True")
 
        Dim command As New SqlCommand("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Users WHERE UserID = @UserID AND Password = @Password", _
                                      connection)
 
        With command.Parameters
            .AddWithValue("@UserID", Me.txtUserName)
            .AddWithValue("@Password", Me.txtPasssword)
        End With
 
        connection.Open()
 
        If CInt(command.ExecuteScalar()) = 0 Then
            MessageBox.Show("Invalid credentials!", "ISTme! Login", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
        Else
            Me.DialogResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK
        End If
 
        connection.Close()

When it gets to the ExecuteScalar line, it throws an exception:

No mapping exists from object type System.Windows.Forms.TextBox to a known managed provider native type.

Does this mean I have to save the credentials to a variable first and then pass it as a a parameter?

I don't have time to check it out at the moment.

Any information is appreciated.

Thanks

[weirddemon]

I feel silly. I assigned the TextBox to the Username/Password, but not the text property.