dynamic data exchange (DDE)

Dynamic Data Exchange(DDE) is a dynamic data exchange method between applications (Application-to-Application) under the operating systems Windows, MacIntosh System 7 and OS/2.

Two DDE applications can exchange data and commands using the DDE conversation. For example, DDE can be used to insert data from a spreadsheet into a text document. If a file linked to other documents by DDE is changed, this change is automatically applied to all files communicating with the file.

During dynamic data exchange the data is stored in the server application, the client application only keeps a reference to the data origin. When the target file is opened, the hint is replaced by the copied original file.

DDE has been replaced by Object Linking and Embedding( OLE).