C# driver quickstart

The C# driver supports the vector data type. These instructions are for users connecting to Hyper-Converged Database (HCD).

Use the C# driver only if your application previously used a CQL-based driver or if you need to explicitly use CQL.

Review the Connection methods comparison page to determine the best option for your use case.

This quickstart provides an end-to-end workflow for how to install the driver, connect it to your database, and migrate an existing DataStax C# driver to a version that is capable of connecting to your HCD database.

Prerequisites

You need the following items to complete this quickstart:

A running HCD database
The latest .NET SDK downloaded and installed. A five-minute Microsoft hello world tutorial for VS Code users is also available.

Connect the C# driver to your database

Create a new C# project and configure it to connect to your Cassandra database.
```
mkdir csharpproject
cd csharpproject
dotnet new console
```
Add the dependencies for the C# driver to your project. Latest .
```
dotnet add package CassandraCSharpDriver -v <version>
```

Replace the code in Program.cs with the following code to connect to your HCD database.

Include your credentials in the WithCredentials method call, as shown in the following examples.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using Cassandra;

namespace csharpproject
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var session =
                Cluster.Builder()
                       .WithCredentials("username", "password")
                       .Build()
                       .Connect();
        }
    }
}

After the connection code, add the following code to the Main method in Program.cs. This code runs a CQL query and prints the output to the console.
```
var rowSet = session.Execute("select * from system.local");
Console.WriteLine(rowSet.First().GetValue<string>("cluster_name"));
```

Run your C# project with the dotnet runtime.

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --no-build

Migrate the C# driver

Complete the following procedure to migrate your existing DataStax C# driver to a version that is capable of connecting to your HCD database.

Add the dependencies for the C# driver to your project. Latest .
```
dotnet add package CassandraCSharpDriver -v <version>
```

In your existing DataStax C# driver code, modify the connection code to use the HCD API.

Include your credentials in the WithCredentials method call, as shown in the following examples.

using Cassandra.DataStax.Auth;

var session =
  Cluster.Builder()
      .AddContactPoints("localhost")
      .WithAuthProvider(new DsePlainTextAuthProvider("cassandra", "cassandra"))
      .Build()
      .Connect();

Run your application.

C# driver quickstart

Prerequisites

Connect the C# driver to your database

Migrate the C# driver

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