JDBC Installation

First, you need a database program that is compatible with JDBC. There are many excellent choices, such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.

You must also create a database for your experimental use. We assume you name it COREJAVA. Create a new database, or have your database administrator create one with the appropriate permissions. You need to be able to create, update, and drop tables in the database.

If you have never installed a client/server database before, you may find that setting up the database is somewhat complex and that diagnosing the cause for failure can be difficult. It may be best to seek expert help if your setup is not working correctly.

If this is your first experience with databases, we recommend that you install a pure Java database such as McKoi (http://mckoi.com/database), HSQLDB (http://hsqldb.sourceforge.net), or Derby (http://incubator.apache.org/derby). These databases are less powerful but are simple to set up.

Essentially all database vendors already have JDBC drivers. You need to locate the vendor's instructions to load the driver into your program and to connect to the database. In the next section, we explain the setups for two typical databases that are available on a variety of platforms:

• McKoi

• PostgreSQL

Instructions for other databases are similar, although, of course, the details will vary.

We recommend against using the JDBC/ODBC bridge driver that comes with the Java 2 SDK. We recommend even more strongly against using that driver with a desktop database such as Microsoft Access. Not only are the installation and configuration somewhat cumbersome, but both the bridge driver and desktop databases have restrictions that can easily lead to confusion. Ultimately, one learns very little about real databases from this setup.