Chapter 9. MySQL and Java

Over the past several years, Java has emerged as a very popular programming language, thanks largely to its platform independence. You can use Java to create applets that run on Web pages, to write JavaServer Pages (JSPs), or to develop stand-alone applications.

Because Java always uses JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) to connect to a database, if you write your code properly and adhere to SQL standards, your Java applications can be easily ported from platform to platform and database application to database application. When it comes to using Java with MySQL, there is MySQL's own special JDBC interface, called MySQL Connector/J.

Like the preceding two chapters, this one will not actually teach Java, though I will explain some basic Java stuff as the scripts are created. Beginning users should be able to write simple Java applications from these instructions. For the most part, the focus will be on using JDBC and the MySQL Connector/J to interact with a MySQL database.