Introduction to ODBC
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is an open standard application programming interface (API) for accessing relational and non-relational database management systems. You can use ODBC connection to access files in a number of different databases including Informix, Microsoft Access, dBase, DB2, NetSuite, Teradata, Netezza, Greenplum, Microsoft Excel , IBM DashDB, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and Text. ODBC is based on Structured Query Language (SQL) as a standard for accessing data.
You require the following components to use ODBC:
- •ODBC Client is a front-end application installed in your machine. You use the ODBC Client application to connect to databases.
- •ODBC Driver is a back-end application installed on a computer that is used to store data for access by several users. An ODBC driver processes ODBC function calls, submits SQL requests to a specific data source, and returns results to the client application.
Any ODBC client can access any database for which there is an ODBC Driver.