•  OLEDB & ODBC

OLE DB and ODBC are application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to provide access to a wide range of data sources. A data source consists of the data, its associated database management system (DBMS), the platform on which the DBMS exists, and the network used to access that platform.

ODBC is designed to provide access primarily to SQL data in a multiplatform environment. OLE DB is designed to provide access to all types of data in an OLE Component Object Model (COM) environment. OLE DB includes the Structured Query Language (SQL) functionality defined in ODBC but also defines interfaces suitable for gaining access to data other than SQL data.