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MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide  /  General Information About ODBC and Connector/ODBC

Chapter 3 General Information About ODBC and Connector/ODBC

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) provides a way for client programs to access a wide range of databases or data sources. ODBC is a standardized API that enables connections to SQL database servers. It was developed according to the specifications of the SQL Access Group and defines a set of function calls, error codes, and data types that can be used to develop database-independent applications. ODBC usually is used when database independence or simultaneous access to different data sources is required.

For more information about ODBC, refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/110093.

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a widely accepted application-programming interface (API) for database access. It is based on the Call-Level Interface (CLI) specifications from X/Open and ISO/IEC for database APIs and uses Structured Query Language (SQL) as its database access language.

A survey of ODBC functions supported by Connector/ODBC is given at Section 7.1, “Connector/ODBC API Reference”. For general information about ODBC, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/110093.