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Both sets of MFC classes let you access a wide variety of data sources and make it possible to write applications that are independent of the data source.
Using DAO and the MFC DAO classes, you can access the following sources of data:
DAO is best used with databases that the Microsoft Jet database engine can read. That includes all of the above except ODBC data sources. Best performance is with Microsoft Jet (.MDB) databases. Attaching external tables, especially in ODBC data sources, to an .MDB database is more efficient than opening the external database directly via the MFC DAO classes without attaching. For more information on external data sources, see the article DAO External: Working with External Data Sources.
Using ODBC and the MFC ODBC classes, you can access any data source, local or remote, for which the user of your application has an ODBC driver. Both 16-bit and 32-bit ODBC drivers are available for a wide range of data sources. If you're working with a Microsoft Jet (.MDB) database, it's more efficient to use the DAO classes than the Microsoft Access ODBC driver.