Open database connectivity
standard, database
(ODBC) A standard for accessing different database systems. There are interfaces for Visual Basic, Visual C++, SQL and the ODBC driver pack contains drivers for the Access, Paradox, dBase, Text, Excel and Btrieve databases.
An application can submit statements to ODBC using the ODBC flavor of SQL. ODBC then translates these to whatever flavor the database understands.
ODBC 1.0 was released in September 1992.
ODBC is based on Call-Level Interface and was defined by the SQL Access Group. Microsoft was one member of the group and was the first company to release a commercial product based on its work (under Microsoft Windows) but ODBC is not a Microsoft standard (as many people believe).
ODBC drivers and development tools are available now for Microsoft Windows, Unix, OS/2, and Macintosh.
[On-line document?]
[“Unix Review”, Aug 1995].
(1996-05-27)
Read Also:
- Open data-link interface
networking, standard (ODI) A Novell-developed network card API that provides media and protocol independence. It allows the sharing of a single card by multiple transport layer protocols and resolves conflicts. (1995-03-13)
- Open date
noun a day when no events or appointments have been scheduled
- Open-dating
noun 1. the practice of putting a freshness date on food packages. noun the marking of packaged food products with a ‘sell by’ or ‘use by’ date or the date on which the product was packaged
- Open day
noun 1. an occasion on which an institution, such as a school, is open for inspection by the public Also called at-home US and Canadian name open house
- Open deathtrap
abuse An abusive hackerism for the Santa Cruz Operation’s Open DeskTop. The funniest part is that this was coined by SCO’s own developers. Compare AIDX, Macintrash Nominal Semidestructor, ScumOS, sun-stools, HP-SUX. [Jargon File] (1995-02-02)