Data Access Using ODBCDirect

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ODBCDirect is an alternate mode of Data Access Objects (DAO) that accesses ODBC data sources directly, bypassing the Microsoft Jet engine and taking full advantage of the remote data source's processing capabilities.

Tip   ODBCDirect is really just Remote Data Objects (RDO) with DAO object names. When ODBCDirect is enabled, DAO does not load the Microsoft Jet database engine — it loads RDO 2.0 instead.

When compared to standard Data Access Objects (DAO), there are several advantages to ODBCDirect, as listed here.

  • Better performance
  • Reduced resource requirements (in bypassing the Microsoft Jet engine)
  • Access to server-specific functionality (such as specifying parameter values for stored procedures)
  • Batch optimistic updating of locally-cached recordset changes
  • Asynchronous queries

ODBCDirect is an improvement over standard DAO, which always uses the Microsoft Jet engine. However, when compared to the newer ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) or Remote Data Objects (RDO) technologies, ODBCDirect is a slower, less capable data access alternative.

The following sections will acquaint you with ODBCDirect data access technology.

Section Description
Understanding the ODBCDirect Object Model Defines the ODBCDirect object model and how it works.
Accessing Data with ODBCDirect Discusses the application and use of the ODBCDirect data access technology.
When to Use ODBCDirect Specifies when to use ODBCDirect in your application.

For More Information   For more information on how to implement data access using ODBCDirect, search for "Data Access Object's ODBCDirect" in MSDN Library Visual Studio 6.0. For more information on using the similar Data Access Objects (DAO) data access technology, see Data Access Using Data Access Objects (DAO).