ActiveX Data Objects (ADO)
ActiveX Data Objects is a programming model, which means that it is not dependent upon any given back-end engine. Currently, however, the only engine supporting the ADO model is OLE-DB. There are many native OLE-DB Providers as well as an OLE-DB Provider for ODBC. ADO is used in C++ and Visual Basic programs to connect to SQL Server and other databases. Of course, it also works to connect to Azure SQL Database in the cloud.[1]
In computing, Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) comprises a set of Component Object Model (COM) objects for accessing data sources. A part of MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components), it provides a middleware layer between programming languages and OLE DB (a means of accessing data stores, whether databases or not, in a uniform manner). ADO allows a developer to write programs that access data without knowing how the database is implemented; developers must be aware of the database for connection only. No knowledge of SQL is required to access a database when using ADO, although one can use ADO to execute SQL commands directly (with the disadvantage of introducing a dependency upon the type of database used).
Microsoft introduced ADO in October 1996, positioning the software as a successor to Microsoft's earlier object layers for accessing data sources, including RDO (Remote Data Objects) and DAO (Data Access Objects).
ADO is made up of four collections and twelve objects. [2]
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