DAO Objects and Collections Reference
DAO objects and collections provide a framework for using code to create and manipulate components of your database system. Objects and collections have properties that describe the characteristics of database components and methods that you use to manipulate them. Together these objects and collections form a hierarchical model of your database structure, which you can control programmatically.
Objects and collections provide different types of containment relations: Objects contain zero or more collections, all of different types; and collections contain zero or more objects, all of the same type. Although objects and collections are similar entities, the distinction differentiates the two types of relations.
In the following table, the type of collection in the first column contains the type of object in the second column. The third column describes what each type of object represents.
| Collection | Object | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Connections | Connection | Information about a connection to an ODBC data source (ODBCDirect workspaces only) |
| Containers | Container | Storage for information about a predefined object type (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Databases | Database | An open database |
| None | DBEngine | The Microsoft Jet database engine |
| Documents | Document | Information about a saved, predefined object (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Errors | Error | Information about any errors associated with this object |
| Fields | Field | A column that is part of a table, query, index, relation, or recordset |
| Groups | Group | A group of user accounts (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Indexes | Index | Predefined ordering and uniqueness of values in a table (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Parameters | Parameter | A parameter for a parameter query |
| Properties | Property | A built-in or user-defined property |
| QueryDefs | QueryDef | A saved query definition |
| Recordsets | Recordset | The records in a base table or query |
| Relations | Relation | A relationship between fields in tables and queries (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| TableDefs | TableDef | A saved table definition (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Users | User | A user account (Microsoft Jet workspaces only) |
| Workspaces | Workspace | A session of the Microsoft Jet database engine |