Traditional JDBC Connectivity

Overview

Databases use a common language called Structured Query Language (SQL) to manipulate data stored in tables. During the early days of database use, SQL wasn't standardized; but in 1992, a body came together and standardized how SQL should be represented and used. Although this standardization is helpful for the manipulation of data, it doesn't do anything for the connection to the database from an application (which is usually the first step in using a database).

To help make connectivity as portable as possible, a new interface was created: Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). ODBC is a C-based API that exposes a common framework for connecting to a database. A database vendor that wants to provide access using ODBC writes a bridge driver hooking the API to the vendor's database. The bridge driver is different for each specific database vendor.

ODBC has served the C and C++ community well, but it doesn't help the Java community. Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an answer to ODBC, and by using it, Java applications can connect to databases in a portable fashion.