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INFO: OLE DB Provider for ODBC Now an ODBC 3.5 and Higher Core Component

Article ID: 178852

Article Last Modified on 6/12/2001

Microsoft Open Database Connectivity 3.5
Microsoft Open Database Connectivity 3.51
Microsoft OLE DB 1.5
Microsoft OLE DB 2.0
Microsoft OLE DB 2.1
Microsoft OLE DB 2.5
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5

This article was previously published under Q178852

SUMMARY

With the release of ODBC 3.5, the OLE DB Provider for ODBC is now a required core component of ODBC.

MORE INFORMATION

OLE DB provides support for both traditional relational data sources and non-relational data stores. OLE DB implicitly uses UNICODE strings. With version 3.5, ODBC now offers UNICODE support.

The 1.1 version of the OLE DB Provider for ODBC was written to specific UNICODE specifications within ODBC 3.0. Because these specifications have changed in ODBC 3.5, you must have version 1.5 of the OLE DB Provider for ODBC when using ODBC 3.5. The OLE DB Provider for ODBC version in later releases should match the MDAC release they shipped with, for example, 2.1 with MDAC 2.1. The OLE DB Provider for ODBC should not be changed from the version which shipped with it's parent MDAC package, since the entire package is tested as a suite, and mismatched components may cause unpredictable behavior. If you install or redistribute ODBC 3.5 onto a computer with OLE DB 1.1 and ODBC 3.0, you will have problems with any OLE DB application on that computer that uses the OLE DB Provider for ODBC, unless you also install the OLE DB Provider for ODBC, version 1.5. Version 1.1 of the ODBC Provider will not work with ODBC 3.5 because it relies on ODBC 3.0 code that is no longer present in ODBC 3.5.

While applications based on ODBC 3.5 can run without the presence of the OLE DB Provider for ODBC, distributing ODBC 3.5 without including the provider means installation of your application could cause problems with pre-existing OLE-DB-based applications that use that provider.

This article deals with redistribution of Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), which includes ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, RDS, the MDAC Standalone, MDAC Redistribution and the Data Access SDK. The "Redistributing Microsoft Data Access Components" whitepaper presents a comprehensive overview of this subject, including referencing the content in this article. This whitepaper is located at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/msdn_redistmdac.htm

Additional query words: ActiveX Data Object ADO objects

Keywords: kbinfo kbprovider kbdatabase kbdriver KB178852