How can I find out the location of my (localdb) SQL Server 2012 database and back it up?

Question

I am using the VS2012 and I have created a database:

(localdb)\v11.0 (SQL Server 11.0.2100 - T61\Alan)

How to get the physical location of this database. How can I back this up? Can I simply make a copy of the files, move these to a different location and start the database again.

Following is my connection string:

<add name="DB1Context" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=DB1;Integrated Security=SSPI;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Answer 1

You can try the following code:

DECLARE
      @SQL NVARCHAR(1000)
    , @DB_NAME NVARCHAR(100) = 'AdventureWorks2008R2'

SELECT TOP 1 @SQL = '
    BACKUP DATABASE [' + @DB_NAME + ']
    TO DISK = ''' + REPLACE(mf.physical_name, '.mdf', '.bak') + ''''
FROM sys.master_files mf
WHERE mf.[type] = 0
    AND mf.database_id = DB_ID(@DB_NAME)

PRINT @SQL
EXEC sys.sp_executesql @SQL

 Output:

BACKUP DATABASE [AdventureWorks2008R2]
TO DISK = 'D:\DATABASE\SQL2012\AdventureWorks2008R2.bak'

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