System.Data.SQLite

I'm trying to have a generic function for SQL queries with the output being a datareader. I'm getting a database locked error when running my code though, so I put a dbconn.close before my return but then I get an error saying the connection is closed and so the data no longer is in the reader to return. Catch 22. I think I must be going about this the wrong way. Can anyone point me in the direction of tutorials that don't use scalar and are relevant to C#.net? Or at least, could someone suggest a different method for doing this:

public static SQLiteDataReader ExecuteQuery(string strSql)
{
 SQLiteConnection dbConn = new SQLiteConnection("Data Source=" + dbPath + @"\" + dbName);
 dbConn.Open();

 SQLiteCommand sqlQ = new SQLiteCommand(dbConn);
 sqlQ.CommandText = strSql;

 SQLiteDataReader sqlReader = sqlQ.ExecuteReader();
 dbConn.Close();

 return sqlReader;
}

SQLiteDataReader sqlReader;
sqlReader = SQL.ExecuteQuery("SELECT count(FilePath) FROM files WHERE FilePath = '" + strSPath + "';");

 Why not keep your connection open while your program is running?

Edit: I did not read your post well.   I did not see you have a locked error.  Is this when executing your command?

No, it's when I execute another command following the first one. Because I don't close the connection, I get a locked error. Would opening the connection at program start prevent this?

What options do I have when opening a connection to prevent locking of tables?

You need to dispose of the datareader when you're done with it, with using() statements.

using (SQLiteDataReader sqlReader = SQL.ExecuteQuery("select whatever from whatever"))
{
  // ... do your code here
}

The problem is you're leaving the datareader's hanging, at which point they lazily go to the garbage collector to get GC'd whenever the collector gets around to it.

 Thanks, this work but where do I close the connection? I've returned a reader from my SQL class to the program class so I can't add it to the function. Should I abstract dbConn to a public variable as suggested and have a close procedure to call from the program class?