ODBC is an SQL-based Application Programming Interface (API) created by Microsoft that is used by Windows software applications to access databases via SQL. JDBC is an SQL-based API created by Sun Microsystems to enable Java applications to use SQL for database access.
These APIs provide communications between an application residing on a client machine and a data source residing on the same client machine or on another server computer.
Micro Focus XDBC includes both ODBC and JDBC drivers for COBOL data files. Micro Focus XDBC gives ODBC-enabled Windows applications (like those in Microsoft Office) and Java applications access to indexed, relative, and fixed-length sequential data files.