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Open Database Connectivity

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

ODBC

Definition

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) [1] is an Application Programming Interface (API) specification to use database management systems (DBMS). The ODBC API is a library of functions for the ODBC-enabled applications to connect any ODBC-driver-available database, execute Structured Query Language (SQL) statements, and retrieve results. ODBC is independent of programming languages, database systems and operating systems.

Key Points

ODBC (pronounced as separate letters), is a standard database access method developed by the SQL Access Group in 1992. Its objective is to make any application to access any data regardless of the database management systems. To achieve this objective, ODBC inserts a database driver as a middle layer between an application and the DBMS, the purpose of which is to translate the application queries to commands understood by the DBMS. In practice, both the application and the DBMS must be ODBC-compliant; that is, the application must be...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Geiger K. Inside ODBC. Microsoft Press, 1995.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Changqing Li

Authors
  1. Changqing Li
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Li, C. (2009). Open Database Connectivity. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_1214

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