-----------------------------------------------
In .Net, there is a class called SqlConnectionStringBuilder that is very useful for dealing with SQL Server connection strings using type-safe properties to build up parts of the string. This class keeps an internal list of synonyms so it can map from one value to another:
+----------------------+-------------------------+ | Value | Synonym | +----------------------+-------------------------+ | app | application name | | async | asynchronous processing | | extended properties | attachdbfilename | | initial file name | attachdbfilename | | connection timeout | connect timeout | | timeout | connect timeout | | language | current language | | addr | data source | | address | data source | | network address | data source | | server | data source | | database | initial catalog | | trusted_connection | integrated security | | connection lifetime | load balance timeout | | net | network library | | network | network library | | pwd | password | | persistsecurityinfo | persist security info | | uid | user id | | user | user id | | wsid | workstation id | +----------------------+-------------------------+
(Compiled with help from Reflector)
There are other similar classes for dealing with ODBC and OleDb connection strings, but unfortunately nothing for other database vendors - I would assume the onus is on a vendor's library to provide such an implementation.