Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
What is ODBC?
ODBC is the acronym for Open DataBase Connectivity, a Microsoft
Universal Data Access standard that started life as the Windows
implementation of the X/Open SQL Call Level Interface specification. Since
its inception in 1992 it has rapidly become the industry standard
interface for developing database-independent applications. ODBC consists
of two key components:
-
ODBC Driver Manager - an application binds to this
generic library which is responsible for loading the requested ODBC
Driver.
-
ODBC Driver - dynamically loaded by the ODBC Driver
manager for making connection to target Database.
Although starting life as an exclusively Microsoft Windows Data
Access API, as its popularity grew, application-authors and
database-vendors alike longed for this Data Access standard to be
available on other operating systems. This resulted in companies like
OpenLink building their own ODBC Driver Managers and suite of ODBC Drivers
for other operating systems - Linux, Unix, Mac OS, OpenVMS and others.
The OpenLink-branded ODBC Driver Manager is called iODBC, being the acronym for
Independent Open DataBase Connectivity, an Open Source
platform-independent implementation of both the ODBC and X/Open
specifications. OpenLink also provides a suite of Universal Data Access
ODBC Drivers for the most popular databases across multiple operating
systems.
Why use ODBC?
ODBC enables maximum interoperability between the application and database
as a single application can access any ODBC-enabled database by simply
being configured to use its ODBC driver, and likewise an ODBC-enabled
application can access a given Database using its ODBC driver. The ODBC
driver manager acts as the common interface enabling this dynamic
switching to take place, thus giving application developers the
database-independence of which they have always dreamed.