Using JDBC in our Java code

Creating JDBC Application

Today I'm going to explain a really basic example about using JDBC in our java code. 

First of all, we have to create the data we need to extract from our DB. 

Create the table Employee as follows:

mysql> use EMP;
mysql> create table Employees
    -> (
    -> id int not null,
    -> age int not null,
    -> first varchar (255),
    -> last varchar (255)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
mysql>

Create Data Records

Finally you create few records in Employee table as follows:

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (100, 18, 'Zara', 'Ali');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (101, 25, 'Mahnaz', 'Fatma');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (102, 30, 'Zaid', 'Khan');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (103, 28, 'Sumit', 'Mittal');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql>

There are following six steps involved in building a JDBC application −

• Import the packages: Requires that you include the packages containing the JDBC classes needed for database programming. Most often, using import java.sql.* will suffice.
• Register the JDBC driver: Requires that you initialize a driver so you can open a communication channel with the database.
• Open a connection: Requires using the DriverManager.getConnection() method to create a Connection object, which represents a physical connection with the database.
• Execute a query: Requires using an object of type Statement for building and submitting an SQL statement to the database.
• Extract data from result set: Requires that you use the appropriate ResultSet.getXXX() method to retrieve the data from the result set.
• Clean up the environment: Requires explicitly closing all database resources versus relying on the JVM's garbage collection.

Sample Code

This sample example can serve as a template when you need to create your own JDBC application in the future.

Copy and paste the following example in FirstExample.java, compile and run as follows:

//STEP 1. Import required packages
import java.sql.*;

public class FirstExample {
   // JDBC driver name and database URL
   static final String JDBC_DRIVER = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";  
   static final String DB_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/EMP";

   //  Database credentials
   static final String USER = "username";
   static final String PASS = "password";
   
   public static void main(String[] args) {
   Connection conn = null;
   Statement stmt = null;
   try{
      //STEP 2: Register JDBC driver
      Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");

      //STEP 3: Open a connection
      System.out.println("Connecting to database...");
      conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,USER,PASS);

      //STEP 4: Execute a query
      System.out.println("Creating statement...");
      stmt = conn.createStatement();
      String sql;
      sql = "SELECT id, first, last, age FROM Employees";
      ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);

      //STEP 5: Extract data from result set
      while(rs.next()){
         //Retrieve by column name
         int id  = rs.getInt("id");
         int age = rs.getInt("age");
         String first = rs.getString("first");
         String last = rs.getString("last");

         //Display values
         System.out.print("ID: " + id);
         System.out.print(", Age: " + age);
         System.out.print(", First: " + first);
         System.out.println(", Last: " + last);
      }
      //STEP 6: Clean-up environment
      rs.close();
      stmt.close();
      conn.close();
   }catch(SQLException se){
      //Handle errors for JDBC
      se.printStackTrace();
   }catch(Exception e){
      //Handle errors for Class.forName
      e.printStackTrace();
   }finally{
      //finally block used to close resources
      try{
         if(stmt!=null)
            stmt.close();
      }catch(SQLException se2){
      }// nothing we can do
      try{
         if(conn!=null)
            conn.close();
      }catch(SQLException se){
         se.printStackTrace();
      }//end finally try
   }//end try
   System.out.println("Goodbye!");
}//end main
}//end FirstExample

Now let us compile the above example as follows:

C:\>javac FirstExample.java
C:\>

When you run FirstExample, it produces the following result:

C:\>java FirstExample
Connecting to database...
Creating statement...
ID: 100, Age: 18, First: Zara, Last: Ali
ID: 101, Age: 25, First: Mahnaz, Last: Fatma
ID: 102, Age: 30, First: Zaid, Last: Khan
ID: 103, Age: 28, First: Sumit, Last: Mittal
C:\>

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Programming thought of the day:

• Q: What do you call the security outside of a Samsung Store? 
• A: Guardians of the Galaxy.
•