I'm having some trouble in understanding why I'm unable to connect to a simple test database I created through code. The database shows under Solution Explorer; however, it throws a SqlCeException with "The database file cannot be found as soon as it tries to open the connection. Check the path to the database. [Data Source = test.sdf]". If I navigate to the projects location using Explorer I can clearly see the database file. Below is my code for testing this.

string connectionString = "Data Source=test.sdf;password=password;encrypt=true";
SqlCeEngine engine = new SqlCeEngine(connectionString);
engine.CreateDatabase();

SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection(connectionString);
SqlCeCommand cmd = new SqlCeCommand();
            
cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM Project";
conn.Open();
SqlCeResultSet resultSet = cmd.ExecuteResultSet(ResultSetOptions.Scrollable |
                                             ResultSetOptions.Updatable);
this.bindingSource1.DataSource = resultSet;

Any ideas why it is unable to find the database when it is actually there within the project?

 Hi lspence,

There is no relative path concept in WinCE platform, so it is obviouse that your path is wrong,  we have to take absolute path, like the code below:

ConnectionString = "Data Source = \\Program Files\\DeviceApplication6\\data.sdf";

Best regards,
Guang-Ming Bian - MSFT

Thanks, I already figured it out after doing some more research.