OLE DB is a data access model from Microsoft. It uses the Component Object Model (COM) interfaces and, unlike ODBC, does not assume that the data source uses a SQL query processor.
Each OLE DB provider is a dynamic-link library. You need an OLE DB provider for each type of data source you want to access. There are two OLE DB providers you can use to access Adaptive Server:
Sybase Adaptive Server OLE DB Provider The Adaptive Server OLE DB Provider has been designed to work with OLE DB 2.5 and later. It provides access to Adaptive Server as an OLE DB data source without the need for ODBC components. The short name for this provider is ASEOLEDB.
Microsoft OLE DB provider for ODBC Microsoft provides an OLE DB provider with a short name of MSDASQL. The MSDASQL provider makes ODBC data sources appear as OLE DB data sources. To do this, it requires the Adaptive Server ODBC Driver.
Using the Adaptive Server OLE DB Provider brings the following benefits:
ODBC is not required in your deployment.
You can get full access to Adaptive Server features from OLE DB programming environments. The MSDASQL provider allows OLE DB clients to work with any ODBC driver but does not guarantee that you can use the full range of functionality of each ODBC driver.
