Database Connectivity

ODBC

Open Database Connectivity

Adopt Formal standard ISO/IEC 9075-3 (originally Microsoft / SQL Access Group) Since 1992

Judgement: Adopt

Cross-language equivalent of JDBC; sits behind every BI tool.

C-based, language-neutral API for accessing relational databases. The cross-platform sibling of JDBC, and the connectivity layer behind most BI tools and Excel-style integrations.

Like JDBC, ODBC is row-oriented — efficient for transactional access, less so for analytical column-heavy result sets.

Example

A DSN in odbc.ini; applications then connect with `DSN=sales;UID=reader` and never name the driver again.

[sales]
Driver   = PostgreSQL Unicode
Server   = db.example.com
Port     = 5432
Database = sales

; or skip the DSN entirely:
; Driver={PostgreSQL Unicode};Server=db.example.com;Port=5432;Database=sales;UID=reader;

At a glance

Category
Database Connectivity
Governance
ISO/IEC 9075-3 (originally Microsoft / SQL Access Group)
Status
Stable since 1992; cross-language standard
First released
1992

Links

Related standards

Other standards in Database Connectivity.

See ODBC in context

Open the interactive Data Landscape to compare ODBC against every other open standard, or grab the raw JSON. Spotted something wrong? Open an issue.