Differences Between Linked and Opened Tables

If you need to maintain data in its original format (rather than importing it into a Microsoft Jet database), you must choose whether to link the table or open it directly. In most cases, you’ll find that linking makes sense with ODBC tables, as it is usually faster; directly opening the table is usually faster for all data sources accessed through IISAM drivers. There are some fundamental differences in the behavior of both access methods. This section describes these differences.

Important You cannot use the Seek method with linked tables.

See Also For information about how to access external data through ODBC and how to use ODBCDirect, see Chapter 9, “Developing Client/Server Applications.”