ADO consists of the following nine objects and four collections.

 

Connection object

 

Represents a unique session with a data source. In the case of a client/server database system, it may be equivalent to an actual network connection to the server. Depending on the functionality supported by the provider, some collections, methods, or properties of a Connection object may not be available.

 

Command object

 

Used to define a specific command, such as a SQL query, intended to run against a data source.

 

Recordset object

 

Represents the entire set of records from a base table or the results of an executed command. All Recordset objects consist of records (rows) and fields (columns).

 

Record object

 

Represents a single row of data, either from a Recordset or from the provider. This record could represent a database record or some other type of object such as a file or directory, depending upon your provider.

 

Stream object

 

Represents a stream of binary or text data. For example, an XML document can be loaded into a stream for command input or returned from certain providers as the results of a query. A Stream object can be used to manipulate fields or records containing these streams of data.

 

Parameter object

 

Represents a parameter or argument associated with a Command object, based on a parameterized query or stored procedure.

 

Field object

 

Represents a column of data with a common data type. Each Field object corresponds to a column in the Recordset.

 

Property object

 

Represents a characteristic of an ADO object that is defined by the provider. ADO objects have two types of properties: built-in and dynamic. Built-in properties are those properties implemented in ADO and immediately available to any new object. The Property object is a container for dynamic properties, defined by the underlying provider.

 

Error object

 

Contains details about data access errors that pertain to a single operation involving the provider.

 

Fields collection

 

Contains all the Field objects of a Recordset or Record object.

 

Properties collection

 

Contains all the Property objects for a specific instance of an object.

 

Parameters collection

 

Contains all the Parameter objects of a Command object.

 

Errors collection

 

Contains all the Error objects created in response to a single provider-related failure.