Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is a set of Component Object Model (COM) objects for accessing data sources. A part of MDAC, it provides a middleware layer between programming languages and OLE DB (a means of accessing data stores, whether they be databases or otherwise, in a uniform manner). ADO allows a developer to write programs that access data without knowing how the database is implemented. She 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 directly execute SQL commands. The disadvantage of the latter is that it introduces a dependency upon the type of database used.
ADO 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 October 1996.
Read more about ActiveX Data Objects: Internals, ADO Collections, ADO Objects, Basic Usage, Software Support
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