ARCHIVE / What is ODBC?

ODBC is an API standard for accessing and interacting with database management systems (DBMS) using SQL.  The term ODBC stands for Open Database Connectivity which does a good job of defining its purpose in that ODBC allows for a common means of accessing disparate DBMSes.  ODBC relies on the provision of an ODBC driver for any given DBMS that one wishes to access.  However, such drivers are available for almost all commonly-used DBMSes on most operating systems.  Because ODBC provides a common means of interaction, some individual database-specific features cannot be utilized with ODBC.  Subsequently, ODBC is best suited for gathering data from multiple DBMSes rather than providing a means of accessing a specific DBMS.

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