Property Sets and Property Groups

A property can be associated with an OLE DB object, such as a data source object, or with an entity that is not directly represented as an OLE DB object, such as a table or column. Every OLE DB property belongs to a property set. Each property is identified by its property set's GUID and an integer property ID that is unique within the property set. Taken together, the property set's GUID and the property ID uniquely identify the property. OLE DB predefines a number of property sets and the properties in them. Providers also can define provider-specific property sets containing their own properties.

For a complete list of the OLE DB property sets, see Property Sets in Appendix C: OLE DB Properties.

Each property belongs to a property group. A property group is a set of logically related properties that could apply to an OLE DB object, such as a rowset or a data source object, to an operation on an OLE DB object, or to an object that is not directly represented as an OLE DB object. Property groups are identified by a DBPROPFLAGS value that is returned in the DBPROPINFO structure. OLE DB defines property groups. Providers cannot define their own property groups.

For a complete listing and description of the OLE DB property groups, see Properties by Property Groups in Appendix C: OLE DB Properties. For information about how a consumer determines which group a property is in, see Getting Information About Properties.

Note

Property sets and property groups overlap. That is, a property group can contain properties from more than one property set.