C# Connecting to a SQL server with a named instance?

Question

A client of mine has told me the program I made for them won't connect to a SQL server named instance, I have a standard SQL server with no named instance so I'm wondering how I can test this. A named instance connection string look like the one below, could the backslash be were my code fails?

Driver={SQL Native Client};Server=myServerName\theInstanceName;Database=myDataBase;

My code is as follows:

sqlServer=s.Substring(keyword.Length,s.Length-keyword.Length);
FormODBC formODBC=new FormODBC(this);
formODBC.SetSqlServer(sqlServer,dbUsername,dbPassword,database,table);
formODBC.ReadData();

How should I handle the backslash as I suspect this may be the problem?

Thanks

Answer 1

Also, remember that backslash is an escape character in C# strings. If your instance name is contained in a string variable, make sure you do either:

string server = "myServer\\myInstance";

or

string server = @"myServer\myInstance";