Connection modules for Microsoft SQL Database
This article provides download links to connection modules or drivers that your client programs can use for interacting with Databases, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Managed Instance. Drivers are available for a variety of programming languages, running on the following operating systems:
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
OOP-to-relational mismatch:
Relational: Client programs that are written in an object-oriented programming (OOP) language often use SQL drivers, which return queried data in a format that is more relational than object oriented. C# using ADO.NET is one example. The OOP-relational format mismatch sometimes makes the OOP code harder to write and understand.
ORM: Other drivers or frameworks return queried data in the OOP format, avoiding the mismatch. These drivers work by expecting that classes have been defined to match the data columns of particular SQL tables. The driver then performs the object-relational mapping (ORM) to return queried data as an instance of a class. Microsoft's Entity Framework (EF) for C#, and Hibernate for Java, are two examples.
The present article devotes separate sections to these two kinds of connection drivers.
Drivers for relational access
| Language | Download the SQL driver |
|---|---|
| C# | ADO.NET Microsoft.Data.SqlClient .NET for: Linux-Ubuntu, macOS, Windows |
| C++ | ODBC OLE DB |
| Go | Go MSSQL driver, install instructions Go download page |
| Java | JDBC |
| Node.js | Node.js driver, install instructions |
| PHP | PHP |
| Python | pyodbc, install instructions Download ODBC |
| Ruby | Ruby driver install instructions Ruby download page |
Drivers for ORM access
The following table lists examples of Object Relational Mapping (ORM) frameworks that client applications use to connect to Microsoft SQL Database.
| Language | ORM driver download |
|---|---|
| C# | Entity Framework Core Entity Framework (6.x or later) |
| Go | GORM |
| Java | Hibernate ORM |
| PHP | Eloquent ORM, included in Laravel install |
| Node.js | Sequelize ORM Prisma |
| Python | Django SQL Server backend for Django |
| Ruby | Ruby on Rails |