The ODBC architecture has four components:

  • An application, which processes and calls ODBC functions to submit SQL statements and retrieve results
  • A Driver Manager, which loads drivers for the application
  • A driver, which processes ODBC function calls, submits SQL requests to a specific data source, and returns results to the application
  • A data source, which consists of the data to access and its associated operating system, DBMS, and network platform (if any) used to access the DBMS

The following figure shows the relationship among the four components: