I believe that the best explanation a programmer can get is a well-documented program. For this reason, this manual contains a large amount of examples and code, with numerous comment lines. Keep in mind, however, that the code examples in this manual are designed for illustrative purposes only. Because they are written primarily to demonstrate ODBC and f90SQL principles, efficiency has sometimes been set aside in the interest of clarity. In addition, whole sections of code have sometimes been omitted for clarity. Error checking and input/output have deliberately been kept to the bare basics. Most examples in the manual can be readily compiled and run.
Most code examples use the BookSales database (in Microsoft Access format) or the Books spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) that are provided with the f90SQL distribution. The ODBC drivers shipped with these applications do not support the full functionality exposed by ODBC-API 3.5, but they seemed to be the most logical choice since Microsoft's Access and Excel are widely used and come bundled with many systems that use Microsoft's Windows operating system. However, the ODBC interface is not limited to these applications. Most SQL servers and DBMSs that work under Microsoft's Windows offer drivers that allow data access with ODBC. You can also find drivers to read ASCII text files, which can make development and testing easier.