Using Databases

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Delphi includes many components to access databases and to represent the information they contain. They are grouped according to the data access mechanism:

  • The FireDAC palette contains components that enable native high/speed direct access from Delphi to InterBase, SQLite, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, SQL Anywhere, Access, Firebird, Informix, and more.
  • The dbExpress palette contains components that provide fast access to SQL database servers currently not maintained anymore but kept in the product for compatibility.
  • The ADO Components palette hosts the dbGo components. These components let you connect to an ADO data store, execute commands, and retrieve data from tables in databases using the ADO framework.
  • The InterBase page of the Component palette contains components that access InterBase databases directly, without going through a separate engine layer.
  • The Data Access page of the Component palette contains components that you can use them with any data access mechanism. This page includes TClientDataset, which can work with data stored on disk or using the TDataSetProvider component (also on this page) with components from one of the other groups.

For more information about using client datasets, see Using provider components.

Warning: The Borland Database Engine (BDE) has been deprecated and it does not ship with RAD Studio. It is available as a separate download for compatibility. You should not undertake any new development with BDE. Consider migrating your existing database applications from BDE to FireDAC. We provide a migration tool called reFind to help you in the migration process.
Note: Different versions of Delphi include different drivers for accessing database servers using the BDE, ADO, or dbExpress.

When designing a database application, you must decide which set of components use. Each data access mechanism differs in the range of functional support, the ease of deployment, and the availability of drivers to support different database servers.

Also, when choosing a data access mechanism, you must choose a database server. There are different types of databases. Before settling on a particular database server, you will want to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

All types of databases contain tables that store information. Also, most (but not all) servers support additional features such as:

See Also