Editing Open Database Connectivity (section)

{{Short description|ODBC, standard interface for accessing database systems}}
In [[computing]], '''Open Database Connectivity''' ('''ODBC''') is a standard [[application programming interface]] (API) for accessing [[database management system]]s (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and [[operating system]]s.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} An application written using ODBC can be [[Porting|ported]] to other platforms, both on the client and server side, with few changes to the data access code.

ODBC accomplishes DBMS independence by using an ''ODBC [[Driver (software)|driver]]'' as a translation layer between the application and the DBMS. The application uses ODBC functions through an ''ODBC driver manager'' with which it is linked, and the driver passes the [[Query language|query]] to the DBMS. An ODBC driver can be thought of as analogous to a printer driver or other driver, providing a standard set of functions for the application to use, and implementing DBMS-specific functionality. An application that can use ODBC is referred to as "ODBC-compliant". Any ODBC-compliant application can access any DBMS for which a driver is installed.  Drivers exist for all major DBMSs, many other data sources like [[address book]] systems and [[Microsoft Excel]], and even for text or [[comma-separated values]] (CSV) files.

ODBC was originally developed by [[Microsoft]] and [[Simba Technologies]] during the early 1990s, and became the basis for the [[Call Level Interface]] (CLI) standardized by [[SQL Access Group]] in the [[Unix]] and [[Mainframe computer|mainframe]] field. ODBC retained several features that were removed as part of the CLI effort. Full ODBC was later ported back to those platforms, and became a [[de facto standard]] considerably better known than CLI. The CLI remains similar to ODBC, and applications can be ported from one platform to the other with few changes.