vb.net to Teradata Connection string

Question

I am wondering what I should use to connect to TD via VB.NET. Whether or not I should use ODBC, etc.... My server is TDDEV, database BCPM_DDBO. Also, passwords are changed every so often by DB Admin so I would not want to hard code a password in the connection string. I know that ODBC will prompt for user/pass. Is this the route to go? Thanks so much!

Answer 1

The Teradata .Net provider is faster at retrieving a large number of rows. ( Teradata Developer Exchange )

However, there are some caveats when using it over the ODBC driver (at least with SQL Assistant):

• Global Temporary Tables are not distinguished from regular tables
• The data type for columns/parameters will be the .Net data type and not the real Teradata type
• A WITH (summary) clause in a SELECT statement will cause the data return to fail

In general, it is not advisable to store the password in the code (or connection string). It would be better to have the user prompted. The .Net Provider uses a similar connection dialog as the ODBC driver. This should also handle the natural expiration of passwords based on the Password Security rules defined in the Teradata environment and prompt the user for a new password automatically.