Open Database Connectivity

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a Microsoft-developed application programming interface that lets software access different database management systems through a common interface.

Connect

ODBC Driver: A software component that translates ODBC function calls into a database system’s native protocol. Drivers make one ODBC application work with different database products.
Application Programming Interface: A defined set of operations and conventions through which software components communicate. ODBC is an API that applications call to request database operations.
Microsoft: An American technology company that develops operating systems, software, and cloud services. Microsoft developed ODBC and remains associated with its Windows implementation.
Microsoft Excel: A spreadsheet application for organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data. Excel can import and refresh data from ODBC-accessible database sources.
Java Database Connectivity: A Java API for connecting applications to databases through vendor-specific drivers. JDBC provides a parallel database API designed specifically for Java.
ODBC Driver Manager: A library that loads ODBC drivers and routes application calls to them. It selects and coordinates the driver between an application and a database.
Relational Database: A database that organizes data into tables of rows and columns related through shared values. Relational databases are the systems ODBC most commonly connects to.
SQL Access Group: An industry consortium formed to promote interoperable SQL database access. Its work helped shape the call-level interface approach adopted by ODBC.
Microsoft Access: A desktop relational database application with tools for building forms, reports, and queries. Access can link to external tables through ODBC drivers.
ADO.NET: A .NET framework technology for accessing relational and other data sources. ADO.NET is a different application-facing data access model in Microsoft’s ecosystem.