JDBC Resultset
JDBC Resultset
JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity, which is a standard Java API for database-
independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of
databases.
The JDBC library includes APIs for each of the tasks commonly associated with database usage:
Fundamentally, JDBC is a specification that provides a complete set of interfaces that allows for
portable access to an underlying database. Java can be used to write different types of
executables, such as:
• Java Applications
• Java Applets
• Java Servlets
• Java ServerPages (JSPs)
• Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs)
All of these different executables are able to use a JDBC driver to access a database and take
advantage of the stored data.
JDBC provides the same capabilities as ODBC, allowing Java programs to contain database-
independent code.
Pre-Requisite:
Before progressing on this tutorial you need to have good understanding on the following two
subjects:
JDBC Architecture:
The JDBC API supports both two-tier and three-tier processing models for database access but in
general JDBC Architecture consists of two layers:
The JDBC API uses a driver manager and database-specific drivers to provide transparent
connectivity to heterogeneous databases.
The JDBC driver manager ensures that the correct driver is used to access each data source. The
driver manager is capable of supporting multiple concurrent drivers connected to multiple
heterogeneous databases.
Following is the architectural diagram, which shows the location of the driver manager with
respect to the JDBC drivers and the Java application:
•
• The JDBC-ODBC bridge that comes with JDK 1.2 is a good example of this kind of
driver.
• Type 2: JDBC-Native API:
• In a Type 2 driver, JDBC API calls are converted into native C/C++ API calls which are
unique to the database. These drivers typically provided by the database vendors and used
in the same manner as the JDBC-ODBC Bridge, the vendor-specific driver must be
installed on each client machine.
• If we change the Database we have to change the native API as it is specific to a database
and they are mostly obsolete now but you may realize some speed increase with a Type 2
driver, because it eliminates ODBC's overhead.
•
• The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) driver is an example of a Type 2 driver.
• Type 3: JDBC-Net pure Java:
• In a Type 3 driver, a three-tier approach is used to accessing databases. The JDBC clients
use standard network sockets to communicate with an middleware application server. The
socket information is then translated by the middleware application server into the call
format required by the DBMS, and forwarded to the database server.
• This kind of driver is extremely flexible, since it requires no code installed on the client
and a single driver can actually provide access to multiple databases.
•
• You can think of the application server as a JDBC "proxy," meaning that it makes calls
for the client application. As a result, you need some knowledge of the application
server's configuration in order to effectively use this driver type.
• Your application server might use a Type 1, 2, or 4 driver to communicate with the
database, understanding the nuances will prove helpful.
• Type 100: 100% pure Java:
• In a Type 4 driver, a pure Java-based driver that communicates directly with vendor's
database through socket connection. This is the highest performance driver available for
the database and is usually provided by the vendor itself.
• This kind of driver is extremely flexible, you don't need to install special software on the
client or server. Further, these drivers can be downloaded dynamically.
•
• MySQL's Connector/J driver is a Type 4 driver. Because of the proprietary nature of their
network protocols, database vendors usually supply type 4 drivers.
• Which Driver should be used?
• If you are accessing one type of database, such as Oracle, Sybase, or IBM, the preferred
driver type is 4.
• If your Java application is accessing multiple types of databases at the same time, type 3
is the preferred driver.
• Type 2 drivers are useful in situations where a type 3 or type 4 driver is not available yet
for your database.
• The type 1 driver is not considered a deployment-level driver and is typically used for
development and testing purposes only.
fter you've installed the appropriate driver, it's time to establish a database connection using
JDBC.
The programming involved to establish a JDBC connection is fairly simple. Here are these
simple four steps:
1. Import JDBC Packages: Add import statements to your Java program to import
required classes in your Java code.
2. Register JDBC Driver: This step causes the JVM to load the desired driver
implementation into memory so it can fulfill your JDBC requests.
3. Database URL Formulation: This is to create a properly formatted address that points
to the database to which you wish to connect.
4. Create Connection Object: Finally, code a call to the DriverManager object's
getConnection( ) method to establish actual database connection.
To use the standard JDBC package, which allows you to select, insert, update, and delete data in
SQL tables, add the following imports to your source code:
try {
Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException ex) {
System.out.println("Error: unable to load driver class!");
System.exit(1);
}
You can use getInstance() method to work around noncompliant JVMs, but then you'll have to
code for two extra Exceptions as follows:
try {
Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver").newInstance();
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException ex) {
System.out.println("Error: unable to load driver class!");
System.exit(1);
catch(IllegalAccessException ex) {
System.out.println("Error: access problem while loading!");
System.exit(2);
catch(InstantiationException ex) {
System.out.println("Error: unable to instantiate driver!");
System.exit(3);
}
You should use the registerDriver() method if you are using a non-JDK compliant JVM, such as
the one provided by Microsoft.
1. getConnection(String url)
2. getConnection(String url, Properties prop)
3. getConnection(String url, String user, String password)
Here each form requires a database URL. A database URL is an address that points to your
database.
Formulating a database URL is where most of the problems associated with establishing a
connection occur.
Following table lists down popular JDBC driver names and database URL.
All the highlighted part in URL format is static and you need to change only remaining part as
per your database setup.
Assuming you are using Oracle's thin driver, you'll specify a host:port:databaseName value for
the database portion of the URL.
If you have a host at TCP/IP address 192.0.0.1 with a host name of amrood, and your Oracle
listener is configured to listen on port 1521, and your database name is EMP, then complete
database URL would then be:
jdbc:oracle:thin:@amrood:1521:EMP
Now you have to call getConnection() method with appropriate username and password to get a
Connection object as follows:
DriverManager.getConnection(String url);
However, in this case, the database URL includes the username and password and has the
following general form:
jdbc:oracle:driver:username/password@database
To make the same connection made by the previous examples, use the following code:
import java.util.*;
To ensure that a connection is closed, you could provide a finally block in your code. A finally
block always executes, regardless if an exception occurs or not.
To close above opened connection you should call close() method as follows:
conn.close();
JDBC - Statements
Once a connection is obtained we can interact with the database. The JDBC Statement,
CallableStatement, and PreparedStatement interfaces define the methods and properties that
enable you to send SQL or PL/SQL commands and receive data from your database.
They also define methods that help bridge data type differences between Java and SQL data
types used in a database.
Following table provides a summary of each interface's purpose to understand how do you
decide which interface to use?
Once you've created a Statement object, you can then use it to execute a SQL statement with one
of its three execute methods.
1. boolean execute(String SQL) : Returns a boolean value of true if a ResultSet object can
be retrieved; otherwise, it returns false. Use this method to execute SQL DDL statements
or when you need to use truly dynamic SQL.
2. int executeUpdate(String SQL) : Returns the numbers of rows affected by the execution
of the SQL statement. Use this method to execute SQL statements for which you expect
to get a number of rows affected - for example, an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE
statement.
3. ResultSet executeQuery(String SQL) : Returns a ResultSet object. Use this method
when you expect to get a result set, as you would with a SELECT statement.
Closing Statement Obeject:
Just as you close a Connection object to save database resources, for the same reason you should
also close the Statement object.
A simple call to the close() method will do the job. If you close the Connection object first it will
close the Statement object as well. However, you should always explicitly close the Statement
object to ensure proper cleanup.
All parameters in JDBC are represented by the ? symbol, which is known as the parameter
marker. You must supply values for every parameter before executing the SQL statement.
The setXXX() methods bind values to the parameters, where XXX represents the Java data type
of the value you wish to bind to the input parameter. If you forget to supply the values, you will
receive an SQLException.
Each parameter marker is referred to by its ordinal position. The first marker represents position
1, the next position 2, and so forth. This method differs from that of Java array indices, which
start at 0.
All of the Statement object's methods for interacting with the database (a) execute(), (b)
executeQuery(), and (c) executeUpdate() also work with the PreparedStatement object. However,
the methods are modified to use SQL statements that can take input the parameters.
A simple call to the close() method will do the job. If you close the Connection object first it will
close the PreparedStatement object as well. However, you should always explicitly close the
PreparedStatement object to ensure proper cleanup.
NOTE: Above stored procedure has been written for Oracle, but we are working with MySQL
database so let us write same stored procedure for MySQL as follows to create it in EMP
database:
DELIMITER $$
DELIMITER ;
Three types of parameters exist: IN, OUT, and INOUT. The PreparedStatement object only uses
the IN parameter. The CallableStatement object can use all three.
Parameter Description
A parameter whose value is unknown when the SQL statement is
IN created. You bind values to IN parameters with the setXXX()
methods.
A parameter whose value is supplied by the SQL statement it returns.
OUT You retrieve values from theOUT parameters with the getXXX()
methods.
A parameter that provides both input and output values. You bind
INOUT variables with the setXXX() methods and retrieve values with the
getXXX() methods.
The following code snippet shows how to employ the Connection.prepareCall() method to
instantiate a CallableStatement object based on the preceding stored procedure:
The String variable SQL represents the stored procedure, with parameter placeholders.
Using CallableStatement objects is much like using PreparedStatement objects. You must bind
values to all parameters before executing the statement, or you will receive an SQLException.
If you have IN parameters, just follow the same rules and techniques that apply to a
PreparedStatement object; use the setXXX() method that corresponds to the Java data type you
are binding.
When you use OUT and INOUT parameters you must employ an additional CallableStatement
method, registerOutParameter(). The registerOutParameter() method binds the JDBC data type to
the data type the stored procedure is expected to return.
Once you call your stored procedure, you retrieve the value from the OUT parameter with the
appropriate getXXX() method. This method casts the retrieved value of SQL type to a Java data
type.
A simple call to the close() method will do the job. If you close the Connection object first it will
close the CallableStatement object as well. However, you should always explicitly close the
CallableStatement object to ensure proper cleanup.
The SQL statements that read data from a database query return the data in a result set. The
SELECT statement is the standard way to select rows from a database and view them in a result
set. The java.sql.ResultSet interface represents the result set of a database query.
A ResultSet object maintains a cursor that points to the current row in the result set. The term
"result set" refers to the row and column data contained in a ResultSet object.
The methods of the ResultSet interface can be broken down into three categories:
The cursor is movable based on the properties of the ResultSet. These properties are designated
when the corresponding Statement that generated the ResultSet is created.
JDBC provides following connection methods to create statements with desired ResultSet:
The first argument indicate the type of a ResultSet object and the second argument is one of two
ResultSet constants for specifying whether a result set is read-only or updatable.
Type of ResultSet:
The possible RSType are given below, If you do not specify any ResultSet type, you will
automatically get one that is TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY.
Type Description
ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY The cursor can only move forward in the result set.
The cursor can scroll forwards and backwards, and
the result set is not sensitive to changes made by
ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE
others to the database that occur after the result set
was created.
The cursor can scroll forwards and backwards, and
the result set is sensitive to changes made by others
ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_SENSITIVE.
to the database that occur after the result set was
created.
Concurrency of ResultSet:
The possible RSConcurrency are given below, If you do not specify any Concurrency type, you
will automatically get one that is CONCUR_READ_ONLY.
Concurrency Description
ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY Creates a read-only result set. This is the default
ResultSet.CONCUR_UPDATABLE Creates an updateable result set.
Our all the examples written so far can be written as follows which initializes a Statement object
to create a forward-only, read only ResultSet object:
try {
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement(
ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY,
ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
}
catch(Exception ex) {
....
}
finally {
....
}
There is a get method for each of the possible data types, and each get method has two versions:
For example, if the column you are interested in viewing contains an int, you need to use one of
the getInt() methods of ResultSet:
Similarly there are get methods in the ResultSet interface for each of the eight Java primitive
types, as well as common types such as java.lang.String, java.lang.Object, and java.net.URL
There are also methods for getting SQL data types java.sql.Date, java.sql.Time,
java.sql.TimeStamp, java.sql.Clob, and java.sql.Blob. Check the documentation for more
information about using these SQL data types.
As with the get methods, there are two update methods for each data type:
For example, to update a String column of the current row of a result set, you would use one of
the following updateString() methods:
Updating a row in the result set changes the columns of the current row in the ResultSet object,
but not in the underlying database. To update your changes to the row in the database, you need
to invoke one of the following methods.
The JDBC driver converts the Java data type to the appropriate JDBC type before sending it to
the database. It uses a default mapping for most data types. For example, a Java int is converted
to an SQL INTEGER. Default mappings were created to provide consistency between drivers.
The following table summarizes the default JDBC data type that the Java data type is converted
to when you call the setXXX() method of the PreparedStatement or CallableStatement object or
the ResultSet.updateXXX() method.
JDBC 3.0 has enhanced support for BLOB, CLOB, ARRAY, and REF data types. The ResultSet
object now has updateBLOB(), updateCLOB(), updateArray(), and updateRef() methods that
enable you to directly manipulate the respective data on the server.
The setXXX() and updateXXX() methods enable you to convert specific Java types to specific
JDBC data types. The methods, setObject() and updateObject(), enable you to map almost any
Java type to a JDBC data type.
ResultSet object provides corresponding getXXX() method for each data type to retrieve column
value. Each method can be used with column name or by its ordinal position.
Some intermediate protocols might pre-fetch rows. This causes positioned updates and deletes to
operate against the row the underlying cursor is on, and not the current row of the ResultSet.
JDBC does not define the sort of rounding to use for ResultSet.getBigDecimal. Derby uses
java.math.BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_DOWN.