// generic method to fetch data from SQL Server into a reader

SqlDataReader fetchReader ( string qtext ) {
   // connect to data source
   SqlConnection sqlConn = new SqlConnection (
      getConnection ( "aspnet" ) );

   // initialize command object with qtext
   SqlCommand sqlCmd = new SqlCommand ( qtext.Contains ( ";" ) ? 
      qtext.Substring ( 0, qtext.IndexOf ( ";" ) ) : qtext, sqlConn );

   // open connection
   sqlConn.Open ( );

   // return datareader
   return sqlCmd.ExecuteReader ( CommandBehavior.CloseConnection );
}


// generic method to fetch data from SQL Server into a dataset

DataSet fetchData ( string qtext ) {
   // connect to data source
   SqlConnection sqlConn = new SqlConnection (
      getConnection ( "aspnet" ) );

   // initialize dataadapter with qtext
   SqlDataAdapter myAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter ( qtext.Contains ( ";" ) ? 
      qtext.Substring ( 0, qtext.IndexOf ( ";" ) ) : qtext, sqlConn );

   // initalize and fill dataset with qtext results
   DataSet myData = new DataSet ( );
   myAdapter.Fill ( myData );

   // return dataset
   return myData;
}


// generic method to fetch scalar value from SQL Server

object fetchScalar ( string qtext ) {
   // connect to data source
   SqlConnection sqlConn = new SqlConnection (
      getConnection ( "aspnet" ) );

   // initialize command object with qtext
   SqlCommand sqlCmd = new SqlCommand ( qtext.Contains ( ";" ) ? 
      qtext.Substring ( 0, qtext.IndexOf ( ";" ) ) : qtext, sqlConn );

   // open connection
   sqlConn.Open ( );

   // get scalar
   object scalar = sqlCmd.ExecuteScalar ( );

   // close connection
   sqlConn.Close ( );

   // return scalar
   return scalar;
}

static string getConnection ( string name ) {
   string returnValue = null;

   // look for the name in the connectionStrings section.
   ConnectionStringSettings settings = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings [ name ];

   // if found, return the connection string.
   if ( settings != null ) returnValue = settings.ConnectionString;

   return returnValue;
}