What's ODBC?
Bensen
Greg French
>From: Bensen
>Subject: What's ODBC?
>Date: 10 Jun 1994 20:55:57 GMT
ODBC = Open DataBase Connectivity
It's essentially a way that an application can connect to different databases
and get back results from SQL style queries. The application calls ODBC
functions which go through an ODBC driver which gets the data from the
database. If you decide to change databases, you only need to get a different
ODBC driver, and the application doesn't have to change. The drivers usually
come from the database vendor themselves, or from a company that
specially writes them (like Q&E).
Q&E currently sells ODBC drivers for dBase/xBase(including FoxPro and
Clipper), Paradox, Access, Btrieve, SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, INGRES,
Progress, NetwareSQL, Sybase, and XDB. I think InfoBuilders has a "gateway"
driver that can connect to various mainframe databases, including Focus and
possibly DB2 ?
There are a few commercial apps (like 1-2-3 for Windows v4.x) and several
developer tools (like VisualBasic and Powerbuilder) that take advantage of
ODBC now. I was under the impression that an ODBC "wizard" was coming soon to
Visual C++ (I don't have the latest version myself, so I'm not sure).
Eventually, for certain classes of applications, ODBC support will probably
become as ubiquitous as DDE support is now.
In general, working with ODBC may not be as rich as working with tools that
are specificly optimized for one database. This is especially true if the
driver isn't well written. However, if your needs don't include such server
specific functionality, ODBC is a good way to write a client that will work
with almost any back end.
Hope that helps,
Greg
pwpa...@news.delphi.com
>Eventually, for certain classes of applications, ODBC support will probably
>become as ubiquitous as DDE support is now.
Except that DDE is somewhat passe because of the functionality provided in
OLE2 -- OLE2 pretty much supercedes anything DDE offers...