Using VS 2005:

I have forgotten how to do something really simple. In my defense I have a rotten head cold so I can barely operate door handles and the like at this point but it also seems to have emptied my head of all programming ability.

I need to query a MySQL db using a key that I provide and I want it to return a single string.
I have the key and the query sorted, the data is there in the db.
I can use the data adapter to fill a data set or data table.

What I can't remember how to do is use the returned data as a string (and ToString() doesn't do the trick).

The query basically looks up url in a table, I provide a key code like "home" or "admin" etc. and it returns "~/index.aspx" or something similar.

What I can't get my head round in my muddled state is how I get that single string. I don't want a table or a set of data I just want to send a query to the db and have it return a string that I can then use to redirect to.

Any pointers would be great.

Hmm so nobody else knows how to do this either?

In case anyone is having the same problem, my colleague returned from his day off and solved this one straight away.
It's so embarrassingly simple, I have even used this exact method elsewhere in my code but in my brain funk I just couldn't remember it.
It's ExecuteScalar I'm using it like this:


I hope that helps someone as some sort of karmic payback for me being so brain dead at the mo.

(stB.ToString() is just a string builder I'm using to create the MySQL command rather than a straight string variable and con.cnn is an instance of my connection object)