What Is the JDBC?

This chapter is an introduction to using Java database connectivity (JDBC). JDBC is a part of the core Java APIs and provides cross-platform, cross-database access to databases from Java programs.

JDBC is based on Microsoft's open database connectivity (ODBC). The idea of basing JDBC design on ODBC is that because ODBC is so popular with ISVs (independent software vendors ) as well as users, implementing and using JDBC will be easier for database practitioners who have earlier experience with ODBC. Also, Sun and Intersolv have developed a JDBC-ODBC bridge layer to take advantage of the ODBC drivers available in the market. So with the JDBC APIs and the JDBC-ODBC bridge, you can access and interact effectively with almost all databases from Java applets and applications. From a developer's point of view, JDBC is the first standardized effort to integrate relational databases with Java programs. JDBC has opened all the relational power that can be mustered to Java applets and applications. In this chapter and the next , you take an in-depth look at the JDBC classes and methods .

Java Database Connectivity is a set of relational database objects and methods for interacting with SQL data sources. The JDBC API's are part of core API, and thus are a part of all Java Virtual Machine (JVM) implementations .

Even though the objects and methods are based on the relational database model, JDBC makes no assumption about the underlying data source or the data storage scheme. You can access and retrieve audio or video data from many sources and load into Java objects using the JDBC APIs. The only requirement is that there should be a JDBC implementation for that source. The JDBC Version 2.0 specification available at http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc includes the latest information available on JDBC. As of the writing of this book, the public review of the JDBC 3.0 specification was just about to be released.