$sqlcon = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$sqlcon.ConnectionString = "Data Source=mysqlserver\myinstance1; Initial Catalog=blah; uid=hans; pwd=wurst" # integratedsecurity=true for domainusers
$sqlcmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$sqlcmd.Connection = $sqlcon
$sqlcmd.CommandText = "select top 20 rowname FROM tablename"
$sqlcon.Open()
$sqlds = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$sqlda = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter ($sqlcmd)
[void]$sqlda.fill($sqlds)
$sqlcon.Close()
$sqlds.Tables
write-host "-- we have" $sqlds.Tables[0].row.count "rows"