Despite being quite a basic requirement, it was very difficult to find anything solid on connecting to a SQL database without using CLR or 3rd party libraries in visual C++. This code was tested and works when connecting to a SQL Server Express 2005 server in Visual Studio 2010 with a win32 console project using visual C++. Thanks to Tidy Tutorials, who look to have scalped it from MSDN (although I couldn’t find it anywhere).

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
#include <sqltypes.h>
#include <sql.h>
#include <sqlext.h>

using namespace std;

void show_error(unsigned int handletype, const SQLHANDLE& handle){
    SQLCHAR sqlstate[1024];
    SQLCHAR message[1024];
    if(SQL_SUCCESS == SQLGetDiagRec(handletype, handle, 1, sqlstate, NULL, message, 1024, NULL))
        cout<<"Message: "<<message<<"nSQLSTATE: "<<sqlstate<<endl;
}

int main(){

    SQLHANDLE sqlenvhandle;    
    SQLHANDLE sqlconnectionhandle;
    SQLHANDLE sqlstatementhandle;
    SQLRETURN retcode;

    if(SQL_SUCCESS!=SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE, &sqlenvhandle))
        goto FINISHED;

    if(SQL_SUCCESS!=SQLSetEnvAttr(sqlenvhandle,SQL_ATTR_ODBC_VERSION, (SQLPOINTER)SQL_OV_ODBC3, 0)) 
        goto FINISHED;
    
    if(SQL_SUCCESS!=SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, sqlenvhandle, &sqlconnectionhandle))
        goto FINISHED;

    SQLCHAR retconstring[1024];
    switch(SQLDriverConnect (sqlconnectionhandle, 
                NULL, 
                (SQLCHAR*)"DRIVER={SQL Server};SERVER=localhost, 1433;DATABASE=MyDatabase;UID=sa;PWD=Admin-123;", 
                SQL_NTS, 
                retconstring, 
                1024, 
                NULL,
                SQL_DRIVER_NOPROMPT)){
        case SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO:
            show_error(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, sqlconnectionhandle);
            break;
        case SQL_INVALID_HANDLE:
        case SQL_ERROR:
            show_error(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, sqlconnectionhandle);
            goto FINISHED;
        default:
            break;
    }
    
    if(SQL_SUCCESS!=SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, sqlconnectionhandle, &sqlstatementhandle))
        goto FINISHED;

    if(SQL_SUCCESS!=SQLExecDirect(sqlstatementhandle, (SQLCHAR*)"select * from testtable", SQL_NTS)){
        show_error(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, sqlstatementhandle);
        goto FINISHED;
    }
    else{
        char name[64];
        char address[64];
        int id;
        while(SQLFetch(sqlstatementhandle)==SQL_SUCCESS){
            SQLGetData(sqlstatementhandle, 1, SQL_C_ULONG, &id, 0, NULL);
            SQLGetData(sqlstatementhandle, 2, SQL_C_CHAR, name, 64, NULL);
            SQLGetData(sqlstatementhandle, 3, SQL_C_CHAR, address, 64, NULL);
            cout<<id<<" "<<name<<" "<<address<<endl;
        }
    }

FINISHED:
    SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, sqlstatementhandle );
    SQLDisconnect(sqlconnectionhandle);
    SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, sqlconnectionhandle);
    SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, sqlenvhandle);
    
}