VB and embedded SQL gah! annoying!

[Kaitain]

From time to time I have to do some "real" programming (well, more real than IEC 61131 anyway). It's not really my forté.

All I want to do in the example below is connect to an MS Embedded SQL database file, select everything from it (about 12 rows) and display the number of rows in a message box. It halts with a null reference error at line 23.

I'm using this msdn site as a reference. I've cut it down for now just to demonstrate it has a connection - the db has a few dummy rows of data just to prove a point. I can't see what I've got wrong, which no doubt means it's blindingly obvious.

I have previously managed to use just a CreateCommand() and an ExecuteNonQuery() to insert the data into the db file, so I know that my connection string works, the file's OK and the path is valid; however the sqlcedataadapter looks like the right way to do what I need to do.

Help?

Public Class Form1
    ' the filespec, connection and so forth will be used by multiple forms.
    Public FileSpec As String
    Public dbConnString As String
    Public dbConn As New SqlServerCe.SqlCeConnection("data source = Databases\testdb.sdf")



    Public Sub main()

        Dim dbSqlQuery1 As String

        Dim dbRecords As SqlServerCe.SqlCeDataAdapter = Nothing

        Try
            dbConn.Open()


            ' Select Statement
            Dim dbCommand1 As New SqlServerCe.SqlCeCommand
            dbSqlQuery1 = "select * from accomponent"
            dbCommand1 = dbConn.CreateCommand()
            dbCommand1.CommandText = dbSqlQuery1 ' fails at this point with a null reference error
            dbRecords.SelectCommand = dbCommand1 ' and suggests I define dbCommand1 as "new", which I have


            ' Populate a dataset
            Dim dbDataSet As New DataSet()
            dbRecords.Fill(dbDataSet)

            ' Prove that data exist in the table (should show 12 rows)

            MessageBox.Show("Number of Rows: " & dbDataSet.Tables(0).Rows.Count)

        Finally
            dbConn.Close()
        End Try






    End Sub

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        'Otherwise not much happens...
        main()
    End Sub
End Class

[Gizmo]

Are you certain your datasource path is correct? I really can't see a reason it shouldn't work, although I'm not an expert with the WinCE stuff.

[Kaitain]

The database path is fine. Turns out I just needed to swap

Dim dbRecords As SqlServerCe.SqlCeDataAdapter = Nothing

with

 Dim dbRecords As New SqlServerCe.SqlCeDataAdapter

Which was shown in the reference but which I missed until my second pint of Ruddles...