Imports System Imports System.Data Imports System.Data.SqlClient Module Module1 Sub Main() Dim con As SqlConnection Dim cmd As SqlCommand Dim reader As SqlDataReader Dim firstName As String con = New SqlConnection("Server=localhost;database=pubs;user id=someuser;password=somepass") con.Open() cmd = con.CreateCommand() cmd.CommandText = "select fname from employee" reader = cmd.ExecuteReader() If (reader.Read()) Then firstName = reader.GetString(0) Console.WriteLine(firstName) Else Console.WriteLine("No data returned.") End If End Sub End Module