One of the most tedious jobs Visual C++ programmers face when retrieving data with ADO is having to convert data returned as a VARIANT data type into a C++ data type, then storing the converted data in a class or structure. In addition to being cumbersome, retrieving C++ data through a VARIANT data type diminishes performance.
ADO 2.0 provides an interface that supports retrieving data into native C/C++ data types without going through a VARIANT, and also provides preprocessor macros that simplify using the interface. The result is a flexible tool that is easier to use and has great performance.