I know it’s a very old problem, but this time, in my opinion, it’s a vscode configuration problem
This is the affected piece of code and the error is what you see in the post header.

#include "mysql_connection.h"
#include <cppconn/driver.h>
#include <cppconn/exception.h>
#include <cppconn/resultset.h>
#include <cppconn/statement.h>
#include <cppconn/prepared_statement.h>
using namespace std;

int main(void)
{
cout << endl;
cout << "Let's have MySQL count from 10 to 1..." << endl;
try {
  
  sql::Driver *driver;
  sql::Connection *con;
  sql::Statement *stmt;
  sql::ResultSet *res;
  sql::PreparedStatement *pstmt;
  /* Create a connection */
  driver = get_driver_instance();
  con = driver->connect("tcp://127.0.0.1:3306", "root", "root");
  /* Connect to the MySQL test database */
  con->setSchema("test");

Running or debugging I get the infamous error.
Why do I say it’s a C++ config problem in vscode? Because if I run this command from the terminal everything works correctly and the executable is created.

g++ -o readdb readdb.cpp -L/usr/lib/ -lmysqlcppconn -lmysqlclient

This is settings.json

{
    "git.openRepositoryInParentFolders": "never",
    "workbench.startupEditor": "none",
    "editor.minimap.enabled": false,
    "sqltools.connections": [
        
    ],
    "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "monospace",
    "editor.inlineSuggest.suppressSuggestions": true,
    "editor.snippetSuggestions": "top",
    "editor.suggest.snippetsPreventQuickSuggestions": true,
    "python.createEnvironment.trigger": "off",
    "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 14,
    "terminal.integrated.persistentSessionReviveProcess": "never",
    "breadcrumbs.enabled": false,
    "editor.stickyScroll.enabled": false,
    "debug.terminal.clearBeforeReusing": true,
    "security.workspace.trust.untrustedFiles": "open",
    "dart.flutterSdkPath": "/root/flutter",
    "workbench.colorTheme": "Darcula",
    "cmake.configureOnOpen": true,
    "C_Cpp.default.compilerArgs": [
        "-L/usr/lib/ -lmysqlcppconn -lmysqlclient"
    ],
    
}

and this is c_cpp_properties.json

    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "/usr/include/cppconn"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/clang",
            "compilerArgs": [ "-lmysqlcppconn, -lmysqlclient"],
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++14",
            "intelliSenseMode": "linux-clang-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}