Yes, Sam, you right you may use a File DSN interactively, but, unfortunately, there is no way to pass the name as a parameter... :-(
Why don't you want to use SQLStringConnect(...) function? It allows you to connect to the server without creating any DSN, just prepare correct connection string and pass it as a parameter to that function. Sergey has described how you may use SQLStringConnect(...) function.

With best regards,
Alex

>Many thanks for you reply.
>I found that I could use a File DSN interactively by useing and empty string as the parameter as follows :-
>onvar=SQLCONNECT('') -
>then entering the password and the connection works - I just wanted to know if it were possible to pass the name of the FileDSN as a parameter rather than selecting it interactively.
>Regards, Sam Trenchard