The authors start slow, devoting an entire week's worth of lessons to application design, driver installation, the ODBC SDK (software developer's kit), and other general information. They then shift into high gear, explaining the mechanics of connecting to a database, figuring out ODBC's capabilities, and performing SQL (structured query language) operations on ODBC. Key operations, such as UPDATE, INSERT, SELECT, and DELETE, get lavish coverage. The book also adequately briefs readers on ODBC transaction-processing issues.
As is typical of books in this family, readers learn what they need to make applications work in a basic sense, but little about advanced topics. Another unfortunate aspect of this guide is that it describes ODBC 2.0, which has been replaced by ODBC 3.0. You'll want to supplement Teach Yourself ODBC Programming in 21 Days with a more advanced text soon.