What Is the JDBC?

The idea behind the JDBC was to create a library that allowed the execution of SQL statements from Java without directly worrying about the database package that was going to be used with it (e.g., MySQL, as we have chosen to use in this book). When using the JDBC, simply specify a driver for the required database and it takes care of the rest.

Note that the JDBC only defines an interface for how to access the database. However, because different database systems do not conform to the same standard, some of the JDBC's functions may not be available. For example, some database packages do not support prepared statements; therefore, when using such packages, the prepared statement functionality will not be available in the JDBC. Note also that the SQL language may not be the same for all databases due to proprietary extensions.