JDBC Tutorial

JDBC API is a Java API that can access any kind of tabular data, especially data stored in a Relational Database. JDBC works with Java on a variety of platforms, such as Windows, Mac OS, and the various versions of UNIX.

JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity, which is a standard Java API for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases.

The JDBC library includes APIs for each of the tasks mentioned below that are commonly associated with database usage.

• Making a connection to a database.

• Creating SQL or MySQL statements.

• Executing SQL or MySQL queries in the database.

• Viewing & Modifying the resulting records.

Fundamentally, JDBC is a specification that provides a complete set of interfaces that allows for portable access to an underlying database. Java can be used to write different types of executables, such as −

• Java Applications

• Java Applets

• Java Servlets

• Java ServerPages (JSPs)

• Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

All of these different executables are able to use a JDBC driver to access a database, and take advantage of the stored data.

JDBC provides the same capabilities as ODBC, allowing Java programs to contain database-independent code.

The java.sql and javax.sql are the primary packages for JDBC 4.0. This is the latest JDBC version at the time of writing this tutorial. It offers the main classes for interacting with your data sources.

The new features in these packages include changes in the following areas −

• Automatic database driver loading.

• Exception handling improvements.

• Enhanced BLOB/CLOB functionality.

• Connection and statement interface enhancements.

• National character set support.

• SQL ROWID access.

• SQL 2003 XML data type support.

• Annotations.

This tutorial is designed for Java programmers who would like to understand the JDBC framework in detail along with its architecture and actual usage.

Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of Java programming language. As you are going to deal with RDBMS, you should have prior exposure to SQL and Database concepts.