Context connection

Applies to: SQL Server

The problem of internal data access is a fairly common scenario. That is, you wish to access the same server on which your common language runtime (CLR) stored procedure or function is executing. One option is to create a connection using System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection, specify a connection string that points to the local server, and open the connection. This method requires specifying credentials for logging in. The connection is in a different database session than the stored procedure or function, it might have different SET options, it's in a separate transaction, it doesn't see your temporary tables, and so on.

If your managed stored procedure or function code is executing in the SQL Server process, it's because someone connected to that server and executed a SQL statement to invoke it. You probably want the stored procedure or function to execute in the context of that connection, along with its transaction, SET options, and so on. This is called the context connection.

The context connection lets you execute Transact-SQL statements in the same context that your code was invoked in the first place. In order to obtain the context connection, you must use the "context connection" connection string keyword, as in the following example.

C#

using(SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("context connection=true"))
{
    connection.Open();
    // Use the connection
}

Visual Basic .NET

Using connection as new SqlConnection("context connection=true")
    connection.Open()
    ' Use the connection
End Using

In this section

Article	Description
Context connections vs. regular connections	Describes the differences between regular and context connections.
Restrictions on context connections and regular connections	Describes the restrictions on regular and context connections.