ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook, 2nd Edition

11.16. Enumerating ODBC Drivers

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 in Program.cs in the project EnumerateOdbcDrivers is shown in Example 11-19.

Example 11-19. File: Program.cs for EnumerateOdbcDrivers solution

using System;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace EnuerateOleDbProviders
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Get the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\ODBC Drivers key.
            RegistryKey keyLocalMachine = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(
                @"SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\ODBC Drivers", false);

            // Retrueve and output the ODBC driver names
            string[] valueNames = keyLocalMachine.GetValueNames(  );
            for (int i = 0; i < valueNames.Length; i++)
                Console.WriteLine("{0}", valueNames[i]);

            Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to continue.");
            Console.ReadKey(  );
        }
    }
}

The output is shown in Figure 11-18.

Figure 11-18. Output for EnumerateOdbcDrivers solution

Discussion

The .NET Framework classes that manipulate the registry are found in the Microsoft.Win32 namespace. The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\ODBC Drivers contains a value name for each installed ODBC driver.