Is there a difference between (local), '.' and localhost?

Question

I\'ve used all three of these when making local programmatic connections to databases. Is there any real difference between them?

Answer 1

As far as I know the dot "." and "local" are windows application terms, not a "standard" term, localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1 in the TCP/IP level so if you want to make sure you are "compatible" across platforms you should use either localhost or 127.0.0.1