what is the difference between OLE DB and ODBC data sources?

odbc oledb
Martin08 picture Martin08 · Sep 19, 2008 · Viewed 261.8k times · Source

I was reading a MS Excel help article about pivotcache and wonder what they mean by OLE DB and ODBC sources

...You should use the CommandText property instead of the SQL property, which now exists primarily for compatibility with earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. If you use both properties, the CommandText property’s value takes precedence.

For OLE DB sources, the CommandType property describes the value of the CommandText property.

For ODBC sources, the CommandText property functions exactly like the SQL property, and setting the property causes the data to be refreshed...

I really appreciate your short answers.

Answer

bobobobo picture bobobobo · Jul 13, 2009

According to ADO: ActiveX Data Objects, a book by Jason T. Roff, published by O'Reilly Media in 2001 (excellent diagram here), he says precisely what MOZILLA said.

(directly from page 7 of that book)

  • ODBC provides access only to relational databases

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