Database Connectors provide a transparent, efficient interface between your program and the relational database. The interface is categorized as transparent because the communication between your COBOL program and the database is smooth, with no special query coding on your part and no interruptions in the execution of your program. You need not change your COBOL code if you later want to access a different database or to access an alternate indexed file system.

The information exchange operations between the database and the COBOL program are invisible to the end user. For example, if your program specifies a READ, a database query is automatically generated by the interface. Then the data that is read from the database is translated into a COBOL record. This exchange occurs in fractions of a second, and the application proceeds without interruption.