Here we are getting a table of data, a fairly common thing to do in using VB.NET, note here that you will want to make a function called getSQLConnection to get and open a vaild connection to your database.
For your connection string, if you are in a web environment, you might want to get from the web.config of your site. Like so :
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("NameOfConnectionString")
Here is a get data table function that you might want to use, note the using blocks which help with GC should the statment fail.
Public Function GetDataTable(ByVal StoredProcName As String, ByVal StoredProcPrams As SqlParameter()) As System.Data.DataTable
Try
Dim returnDT as New DataTable
Using SQLConnection = getSQLConnection() ' call a function to get your connection string and open it.
Using command = New SqlCommand
command.Connection = SQLConnection
command.CommandType = Data.CommandType.StoredProcedure
command.CommandText = StoredProcName
If Not (StoredProcPrams Is Nothing) Then
For Each Parameter As SqlParameter In StoredProcPrams
command.Parameters.Add(Parameter)
Next
End If
Using DataAdapter As New SqlDataAdapter(command)
DataAdapter.Fill(returnDT)
Return returnDT
End Using
End Using
End Using
Catch ex As Exception
Throw New ApplicationException("Error in GetDataTable (" & StoredProcName & ") EX:" & ex.ToString)
' maybe some logging here
End Try
End Function