Choosing the correct driver

  • I'm writing some documentation on how to connect Access to SQL via ODBC. I honestly always just choose "11.0" when it comes to drivers, just because. But I'm wondering what determines the driver I "should" be using?

    Does the version of SQL Server determine this? And I'm assuming the "User's" computer won't have all the driver's I'm seeing here so can someone just clarify the rules to choosing the correct driver?

    *I also asked this on StackOverflow, so if you're a user of that as well and come up with an answer, feel free to do it there as well so I can give you some points 🙂

  • As far as connecting to SQL Server 2012 any of the ODBC versions will work (6.0, 10.0, 11.0). The lower versions may not be able to handle more recent functionality/features of SQL Servers.

    6.0, 10.0,11.0 refer to the following dll files:

    6 : file name sqlsrv32.dll

    10: file name sqlncli10.dll

    11: file name sqlncli11.dll

    There is an old article (sqlserver2005) that you may want to read:

    http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/database/using-ado-with-the-sql-native-client/#more-532

    This next one is about version 11.0

    http://opensource.sys-con.com/node/2249144

  • Hmm, I figured it was something like that. There's one article that has some info if someone else comes across this that has some helpful info:

    http://blog.flex2sql.com/index.php/2009/02/how-and-when-to-use-sql-server-native-client/[/url]

  • It's not just a question of which driver to use, but also if you need to use the 32 bit and/or 64 bit driver(s).

    There's two ODBC Administrators:

    32 bit %windir%\syswow64\odbcad32.exe

    64 bit %windir%\system32\odbcad32.exe

    General rule:

    32 bit software uses 32 bit (ODBC-)drivers

    64 bit software uses 64 bit (ODBC-)drivers

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