INFO: Understanding Microsoft's Oracle ODBC Driver Versions (190475)

MORE INFORMATION

The following is a list of all the Microsoft Oracle versions that have been released up through MDAC 2.1 SP2. For later driver information, please refer to DLLHelp at the following Microsoft Web site:

   Version        Build Number    When and Where it Became Available
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

   1.0            2.00.6325       Visual C++ 4.2 & Visual Basic 5.0
                                  Enterprise Edition

   2.0            2.73.7269       Visual Studio 97 & MDAC 1.5a

   2.0 updated    2.73.7283.01    IIS 4.0

   2.0 updated    2.73.7283.03    MDAC 1.5b & 1.5c

   2.0 updated    2.73.7356       ODBC 3.5 SDK

   2.5            2.573.2927      Visual Studio 6.0 & Data Access SDK 2.0
                                  (Also part of MDAC 2.0)

   2.5 updated    2.573.3513      MDAC 2.1 with SQL Server 7.0 & SQL 
                                  Server 6.5 SP5

   2.5 updated    2.573.3711      MDAC 2.1 GA, Office 2000, IE5a

   2.5 updated    2.573.4202      MDAC 2.1 SP2

   2.5 updated    2.573.4403      MDAC 2.5, Windows 2000

   2.5 updated    2.573.5303      MDAC 2.5 SP1, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP1

   2.5 updated    2.573.6526      MDAC 2.6, Microsoft SQL Server 2000

   2.5 updated    2.573.6019      MDAC 2.5 SP2, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2

   2.5 updated    2.573.7326      MDAC 2.6 SP1,Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP1
   2.5 updated    2.573.7713.2    MDAC 2.7
   2.5 updated    2.575.1022.0    MDAC 2.8		
				

Build 2.00.6235 was the first release of the Microsoft ODBC driver and it was named version 1. After the release of the first version, a new naming convention was adopted.

For example, 2.73.7283.03 is broken up into the following distinct components:

   2 = The version number.
   73 = The version of Oracle Server the driver is designed to work with.
   7283.03 = The build number of the driver.
				

With the 2.5 release (2.573.2973) and higher, the version information changes. This has lead to some confusion over 2.573 being less than 2.73, but each section of the build should be looked at individually not as a whole. The number 573 is larger than 73, hence it is a newer version. Also, the 2.5 indicates the version number in the latest driver.