If you are proficient in the C programming language, you can call ODBC routines directly. The ODBC Driver supports all platforms (operating systems) that Actian X supports, so this is an option if you want to run your ODBC application on more than one platform.

Low-level ODBC applications can be more efficient than higher-level applications, since the layers of software between your application and the data are reduced. The disadvantage of low-level ODBC applications is that less of the work is automated, and the interface is less intuitive than a higher-level application interface such as ADO or the .NET Data Provider for ODBC.

The following functional overview examines some of the ODBC function calls and discusses issues specific to the Actian X environment.