Open DataBase Connectivity
ODBC, STANDARD INTERFACE FOR ACCESSING DATABASE SYSTEMS
OBDC; Odbc; ODBC driver; Open database connectivity; Open DataBase Connectivity; ODBC Driver; ODBC; Database driver
<
standard, database> (ODBC) A
standard for accessing
different
database systems. There are interfaces for
Visual Basic,
Visual C++,
SQL and the ODBC driver pack
contains drivers for the
Access,
Paradox,
dBase, Text,
Excel and
Btrieve databases.
An application can submit statements to ODBC using the ODBC
flavor of SQL. ODBC then translates these to whatever flavor
the
database understands.
ODBC 1.0 was released in September 1992.
ODBC is based on
Call-Level Interface and was defined by the
SQL Access Group.
Microsoft was one member of the group
and was the first company to release a commercial product
based on its work (under
Microsoft Windows) but ODBC is not
a Microsoft standard (as many people believe).
ODBC drivers and development tools are available now for
Microsoft Windows,
Unix,
OS/2, and
Macintosh.
[
On-line document?]
[
"Unix Review", Aug 1995].
(1996-05-27)