Advanced Database Controls

Starting with version 6, Visual Basic supports a wide range of ADO objects. ADO stands for ActiveX Data Objects. These ActiveX Data Objects work across different platforms and programming languages. Active Data Objects combines the universal nature of OLE DB with the ease of use found in models such as RDO and DAO. ADO encompasses all the data types that can be represented by the OLE DB standard interfaces. In other words, ADO is extensible without any effort on your part.

Mastering the ADO control is important because they offer several advantages over the data control.

ADO technology supports faster database access than the data control does.

When you use ADO, you'll generally write more program code than you would with the data control. ADO enables you to control data access in a much stricter way than the data control.

ADO gets high marks when it comes to performance, memory footprint, thread-safety, freethreading, distributed transaction support, and remote data access over the Web. The most important advantage of ADO is its capability to access many kinds of data. It is not limited to just relational and nonrelational database information. ADO controls can access Internet browsers, e-mail text, and even graphics.