The ODBC architecture consists of the following components:

  • Application — An ODBC application is any program that calls ODBC functions and uses them to issue SQL statements.
  • ODBC driver manager — The driver manager routes calls from an application to the ODBC driver. The ODBC driver manager loads the requested driver in response to an application's call to the ODBC SQLConnect or SQLDriverConnect functions.
  • ODBC driver — An ODBC driver is a dynamic link library (DLL) or a shared library that processes ODBC function calls for a specific data source. The driver connects to the data source, translates the standard SQL statements into syntax the data source can process, and returns data to the application.
  • Data source — A data source is a combination of a database system, the operating system it uses, and any network software required to access it.

The following figure shows the components of an ODBC environment.

Figure 1. Components of an ODBC environment