dbExpress is Embarcadero's data driver architecture that replaced the older

Borland Database Engine Borland Database Engine (BDE) is the Windows-based core database engine and connectivity software behind Borland Delphi, C++Builder, IntraBuilder, Paradox for Windows, and Visual dBASE for Windows. History Borland’s Turbo Pascal had a "database" ...

. First released with Borland Delphi 6 and C++Builder 6, it has gone through several iterations itself, the latest being shipped with Embarcadero Delphi and C++ Builder RX 10 Seattle. It provides unidirectional database access, that means you can traverse data obtained from a database table only in the forward direction. You cannot go back, unless you add other layers. This makes dbExpress a very fast access technology, compared to many others. Updates has to be done with other in the IDE integrated components as the "DatasetProvider", which assembles automatically appropriate Update-Statements ( in SQL ). Embarcadero supplies drivers for many databases, including

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The wor ...

Firebird Firebird and fire bird may refer to: Mythical birds * Phoenix (mythology), sacred firebird found in the mythologies of many cultures * Bennu, Egyptian firebird * Huma bird, Persian firebird * Firebird (Slavic folklore) Bird species ''Various spe ...

InterBase InterBase is a relational database management system (RDBMS) currently developed and marketed by Embarcadero Technologies. InterBase is distinguished from other RDBMSs by its small footprint, close to zero administration requirements, and multi ...

IBM Db2 Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON and ...

Informix IBM Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Informix Corporation, whose ...

, SQL Server,

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

and

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. A ...

. Additional drivers are available from third parties. Starting with Delphi 2007 (dbExpress 4 generation) a tracing driver is included as well which allows for logging all statements sent to the database. Prior to version 4 of dbExpress the drivers used the Microsoft COM technology and most drivers were not

unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

enabled. Nowadays the drivers are written in Delphi itself and source code for most parts is available. Most drivers today are unicode enabled since Delphi itself switched to unicode with version 2009.

External links

Embarcadero home page
Borland Pascal (programming language) software {{compu-prog-stub