

The OLE DB data consumer is any application or tool that utilizes OLE DB interfaces of a provider to access a broad range of data. Because of COM components, consumers can access them in any programming language that supports COM, such as C++, Visual Basic, and Java. With the standard interfaces, any OLE DB consumer can access data from any provider. A provider may implement optional COM interfaces to provide additional functionality. A provider may return a table, it may allow the consumer to determine the format of that table, and it may perform operations on the data.Įach provider implements a standard set of COM interfaces to handle requests from the consumer.

An OLE DB Provider places that data in a tabular format in response to calls from a consumer. OLE DB data providers are a set of COM components that transfer data from a data source to a consumer.
