MySQL Connector/ODBC

MySQL Connector/ODBC enables any application supporting ODBC—including business intelligence tools, office suites, custom applications, and legacy systems—to access, query, and manage MySQL databases using the ODBC interface.^[1][3]

MySQL Connector/ODBC is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems.^[4] Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are provided, depending on the system and application requirements.^[5]

The official downloads and detailed installation instructions are provided by Oracle.^[6] Step-by-step installation guides, including for Windows, are available from Informatica and Hevo Data.^[7][3][8]

Connector/ODBC supports multiple configuration approaches:

• System DSNs, user DSNs, and file DSNs are supported on all platforms.^[9]
• DSN-less connections (using full connection strings) are widely used.^[10]
• Configuration for DSNs on Windows and macOS is described in official documentation.^[11][12]
• Connection pooling, authentication options, and example usages are extensively documented.^{[13][14][15][8]}

• Compliance with ODBC 3.51 and 3.8 specifications, partial ODBC 4.x support.^[16]
• Unicode and ANSI driver variants for Windows, only Unicode for Unix-like systems.^[1]
• Full support for transactions, savepoints, and rollbacks.^[17]
• Client-side and server-side prepared statements.^[18]
• Native access to MySQL data types, including JSON, BLOB, geometry, BIT.^[19]
• Authentication plugins and SSL/TLS encryption for secure connections.^[14]
• Bulk operations, streaming, connection pooling.^[13]
• Diagnostics, logging, error codes for troubleshooting.^[20][21]
• An API reference is maintained online.^[22]

A detailed official changelog and history is maintained by Oracle.^[23]

• MyODBC 2.50/2.51: ANSI, MySQL 3.x
• 3.51: ANSI-only, ODBC 3.51 compliance
• 5.1–5.3: Unicode/ANSI, ODBC 3.8, 64-bit, DSN file support
• 8.0+: MySQL 8.0+ support, modern authentication, renewed 32-bit support (from 8.0.35)
• 9.x: Latest releases (as of July 2025: 9.3.0), MySQL 8.x and 9.x

MySQL Connector/ODBC is commonly used for:

• Office integration (Excel, Access)
• Business Intelligence (Tableau, Crystal Reports, Power BI)^[8]
• ETL and migration between databases
• Application development in C, C++, Python, Java, .NET, PHP, and more
• Legacy system and cross-platform deployments^[3]

Practical deployment scenarios, configuration advice, and troubleshooting are available in [third-party technical articles].^[8][7][3]

Comprehensive troubleshooting and debugging guidance, including error code lists and reporting bugs, are part of the official documentation.^[20][21][24]

• MySQL
• Open Database Connectivity
• JDBC
• Database connector
• ODBC Data Source Administrator