Re: Speed Problem with Oracle/ODBC

In article <398bof$edg_at_ns.cityscape.co.uk> af02_at_cityscape.co.uk (James Miller) writes:
>We have written a simple program, that analyses and mines databases. The
>program has been written in Visual Basic and accesses Oracle and other
>databases through ODBC.
 

>No problem, works sensibly and our customers like it.
 

>Trouble is we now have a client who wants to give the product to upwards
>of two hundred users, all of whom will be accessing the database at the
>same time. The standard ODBC drivers will crucify everything.
 

>Any ideas?

Is your application programmed directly to the ODBC API or do you use either the VB Data Control or the VB Database Objects (Dynasets, etc.)?

Most performance problems blamed on "ODBC" are really problems with the "Jet" (Access) "engine" that Visual Basic uses to provide database objects and the Data Control. The two are NOT synonymous (though often confused). There can be up to an **order of magnitude** difference in the performance between the two techniques. (Ref: Jeff Littell's article, "Advanced Data Access Using Visual Basic 3.0 and ODBC" on the Microsoft Developers Network CDROM for one set of numbers showing the difference)

Programming directly to the ODBC API (or to a similar 3rd-party library API like the Q+E Database Library) is a lot of work, but may well be worth it, depending on the application.

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Bill Meahan,  Senior Developer  |        wmeahan_at_ef0424.efhd.ford.com 
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