#### ODBC layer

ODBC is a set of several DLLs and INI files built into the Windows environment that act as a gateway through which database requests and data can pass. Any database file or format that is to be used via ODBC must be set up as an ODBC data source.

In Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT, the ODBC DLLs are:

- Odbc32.dll
- Odcccp32.dll
- Odccint.dll (ODBC 2.5 and later).

Although information regarding data sources is recorded in Odbc.ini and Odbcinst.ini, 32-bit ODBC uses the Windows Registry database to retrieve information about individual data sources.

Note: For more information on ODBC and the ODBC files, see the Microsoft ODBC documentation.

ODBC uses the SQL language for all transactions between Seagate Crystal Reports and ODBC. Even if the database does not normally use SQL to create and work with tables, the ODBC driver provided by the database (the DBMS translation layer) must communicate with ODBC using SQL. For most users, this feature of ODBC is transparent, but more advanced users often take advantage of the features of the SQL language used by ODBC.

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