MySQL option=3 in Your ODBC Connection String...What does it do?

You might see OPTION=3 in your MySQL connection string. That number—3 in this case—is the sum of a couple MySQL option flags. In this case, it's

1. FLAG_FIELD_LENGTH: "Do not Optimize Column Width", and
2. FLAG_FOUND_ROWS: "Return Matching Rows

So, that option setting allows you to direct your MySQL server to behave in a specific manner for the duration of each connection. A complete table of these options is available in the MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual.

You might also want to use OPTION=67108864, which allows you to execute multiple sql statements in a single MySQL Connector/ODBC batch, separated by semicolons. To keep other things working the way most people expect, just use 67108867, which is all three options combined.