Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) is a Component object model object for accessing data sources. It provides a layer between programming languages and OLE DB (a means of accessing data stores, whether they be databases or otherwise, in a uniform manner), which allows a developer to write programs which access data, without knowing how the database is implemented. You must be aware of your database for connection only. No knowledge of SQL is required to access a database when using ADO, although one can use ADO to execute arbitrary SQL commands. The disadvantage of this is that this introduces a dependency upon the database. Component Object Model, or COM, is a Microsoft platform for software componentry. ... A programming language or computer language is a standardized communication technique for expressing instructions to a computer. ... OLE DB (sometimes written as OLEDB or OLE-DB), Object Linking and Embedding for Databases, is a means Microsoft use for accessing different types of data stores in a uniform manner. ... A database is an information set with a regular structure. ... SQL (short for Structured Query Language) is the most popular computer language used to create, modify and retrieve data from relational database management systems. ...

It is positioned as a successor to Microsoft's earlier object layers for accessing data sources, including RDO (Remote Data Objects) and DAO (Data Access Objects). ADO was introduced by Microsoft in the winter of 1996. RDO is a Microsoft technology (since deprecated) that stands for Remote Data Objects, allowing you to create interfaces that can directly call ODBC. This is useful for speed, overall control, and also makes your job a lot easier when youre programming. ... Data Access Objects (DAO) were an object oriented interface created by Microsoft which allowed early versions of Microsoft Access and Visual Basic the Jet database engine. ...

ADO consists of several top-level objects:

• Connection (represents the connection to the database)
• Recordset (represents a set of database records)
• Command (represents a SQL command)
• Record (represents a set of data, typically from a source other than a database)
• Stream (represents a stream of data, as from a text file or web page)
• Error (stores errors)
• Field (represents a database field)
• Parameter (represents a SQL parameter)
• Property (stores information about objects)

ADO component is used in conjunction with a high-level language, such as VBScript in an Active Server Pages (ASP) environment, or Visual Basic. Even Delphi, a development environment from Microsoft rival Borland Coporation, now allows the use of ADO to access various databases. VBScript (short form of Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition) is a subset of Visual Basic used in Active Server Pages and in Windows Scripting Host as a general-purpose scripting language. ... Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsofts server-side technology for dynamically-generated web pages that is marketed as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS). ... The theatre, seen from above Delphikjl;lk;kl; (Greek Δελφοί - Delphoi; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. ... Borland Software Corporation (formerly Borland International, Inc. ...

In the newer programming framework of .NET, Microsoft also present an upgraded version of ADO called ADO.NET. Its object structure is quite different from that of traditional ADO. Traditional ADO is still very popular, and is often perceived as being more mature. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) (HKSE: 4338) is the worlds largest software company, with 2005 global annual sales of 40 billion US dollars and more than 55,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. ... ADO.NET (or the new ActiveX Data Objects technology) is the primary relational data access model for Microsoft . ...

Here is an ASP example using ADO to select the "Name" field, from a table called "Phonebook", where a "PhoneNumber" was equal to "555-5555".

 dim myconnection, myrecordset, name set myconnection = server.createobject("ADODB.Connection") set myrecordset = server.createobject("ADODB.Recordset") 

 myconnection.open mydatasource myrecordset.open "Phonebook", myconnection myrecordset.find "PhoneNumber = '555-5555'" name = myrecordset.fields.item("Name") myrecordset.close set myrecordset = nothing set myconnection = nothing 

This is equivalent to the following ASP code, which uses plain SQL, instead of the functionality of the Recordset object:

 dim myconnection, myrecordset, name set myconnection = server.createobject("ADODB.connection") myconnection.open mydatasource set myrecordset = myconnection.execute("SELECT Name FROM Phonebook WHERE PhoneNumber = '555-5555'") name = myrecordset(0) myrecordset.close set myrecordset = nothing set myconnection = nothing 

External links

• Microsoft ADO page
• ADO database connection strings
• Database connection strings