Database connection with semi-colon in password

Question

Is there a way to escape a semi-colon in the connection string on an Input tool?

We have a system generated password that the database admins setup, but it always has a semi-colon in it.

When I try a DSN-less connection string, the semicolon acts as a separator, so it doesn't encrypt the full password.

odbc:DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 8.0 Unicode Driver};UID=myuserid;SERVER=myserverURL;PWD=__encryptedpassword__;restofpassword

I tried wrapping the password in single quotes and double quotes, but it does not encrypt the full password either.

When I try an ODBC DSN connection, I get a prompt saying "format of the initialization string does not conform to specification".

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rbruskiewicz · Answer

If you enclose the password in braces {  } then it should work

Joe_Lipski · Answer

Thanks for providing the answer from support @mcha54, always really useful on posts!

I'd already cast my vote on that, so hopefully it gets picked up by product team soon.

mcha54 · Answer

Hi all, thanks for the replies - I had reached out to support and it is a defect (feature) with no resolution.

They suggested to upvote this Idea:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Stop-passwords-from-escaping-characters-into-a-OLEDB-ODBC/idi-p/21554