diff --git a/system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php
index 2a10989..27b492f 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php
@@ -114,14 +114,14 @@
 	/**
 	 * Select the database
 	 *
-	 * @access	private called by the base class
-	 * @return	resource
+	 * @param	string	database name
+	 * @return	bool
 	 */
-	function db_select()
+	public function db_select($database = '')
 	{
 		// Note: The brackets are required in the event that the DB name
 		// contains reserved characters
-		return @mssql_select_db('['.$this->database.']', $this->conn_id);
+		return @mssql_select_db('['.($database == '' ? $this->database : $database).']', $this->conn_id);
 	}
 
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -676,4 +676,4 @@
 
 
 /* End of file mssql_driver.php */
-/* Location: ./system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php */
\ No newline at end of file
+/* Location: ./system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php */
diff --git a/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
index 067710f..207a68f 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
@@ -119,11 +119,12 @@
 	/**
 	 * Select the database
 	 *
+	 * @param	string	database name
 	 * @return	bool
 	 */
-	public function db_select()
+	public function db_select($database = '')
 	{
-		return @mysql_select_db($this->database, $this->conn_id);
+		return @mysql_select_db(($database == '' ? $this->database : $database), $this->conn_id);
 	}
 
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
index a79b2a4..0b80f55 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
@@ -119,11 +119,12 @@
 	/**
 	 * Select the database
 	 *
+	 * @param	string	database name
 	 * @return	bool
 	 */
-	public function db_select()
+	public function db_select($database = '')
 	{
-		return @mysqli_select_db($this->conn_id, $this->database);
+		return @mysqli_select_db($this->conn_id, ($database == '' ? $this->database : $database));
 	}
 
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
index 6fd52ef..3908400 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
@@ -122,12 +122,12 @@
 	/**
 	 * Select the database
 	 *
-	 * @access	private called by the base class
-	 * @return	resource
+	 * @param	string	database name
+	 * @return	bool
 	 */
-	function db_select()
+	public function db_select($database = '')
 	{
-		return $this->_execute('USE ' . $this->database);
+		return $this->_execute('USE '.($database == '' ? $this->database : $database));
 	}
 
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -608,4 +608,4 @@
 
 
 /* End of file mssql_driver.php */
-/* Location: ./system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php */
\ No newline at end of file
+/* Location: ./system/database/drivers/mssql/mssql_driver.php */
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
index a4904fc..6142d8b 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@
    -  MySQLi driver now supports persistent connections when running on PHP >= 5.3.
    -  Added dsn if the group connections in the config use PDO or any driver which need DSN.
    -  Improved PDO database support.
+   -  An optional database name parameter was added db_select().
 
 -  Libraries
 
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/database/connecting.rst b/user_guide_src/source/database/connecting.rst
index a834cc0..fb45241 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/database/connecting.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/database/connecting.rst
@@ -122,6 +122,12 @@
 	| $DB1->result();
 	| etc...
 
+.. note:: You don't need to create separate database configurations if you
+	only need to use a different database on the same connection. You
+	can switch to a different database when you need to, like this:
+
+	| $this->db->db_select($database2_name);
+
 Reconnecting / Keeping the Connection Alive
 ===========================================