JDBC – Java Database

Connectivity

Talking to Databases
Zulqarnain Hashmi

1
 Introduction to JDBC

• JDBC is used for accessing databases

from Java applications
• Information is transferred from relations
to objects and vice-versa
– databases optimized for searching/indexing
– objects optimized for engineering/flexibility

2
 JDBC Architecture
We will
Access
These are
use this one… Driver
Java classes
MS Access
SQL Server

Java DB2
Application JDBC
Driver
DB2
Network
Oracle
Driver

Oracle
3
 JDBC Architecture (cont.)

Application JDBC Driver

• Java code calls JDBC library

• JDBC loads a driver
• Driver talks to a particular database
• Can have more than one driver -> more than one
database
• Ideal: can change database engines without changing
any application code
 JDBC Drivers

Java
application
JDBC-API
JDBC-
Driver manager

JDBC-ODBC Native
bridge API-driver

ODBC Client library

Client library

5
 What is ODBC?

• ODBC is (Open Database Connectivity):

• A standard or open application programming
interface (API) for accessing a database.
• By using ODBC statements (DSN, Data Source
Name) in a program, you can access files in a
number of different databases, including
Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text.
• ODBC handles the SQL request and converts it
into a request the individual database system
understands.

6
 Running a JDBC Application

Phase Task Relevant java.sql classes

Initialisation Load driver DriverManager

Create connection Connection

Processing Generate SQL statements Statement

Process result data ResultSet etc.

Terminate connection Connection

Termination
Release data structures Statement etc.

7
 Seven Steps

• Load the driver

• Define the connection URL
• Establish the connection
• Create a Statement object statement
• Execute a query using statement
• Process the result
• Close the connection
8
 Loading the Driver

• We can register the Driver indirectly using the

Java statement:
Class.forName(“sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver"); or

Class.forName(“oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");

• Calling Class.forName causes the Driver class to be

loaded
• When this class is loaded, it automatically
– creates an instance of itself
– registers this instance with the DriverManager

9
 Connecting to the Database

• Every database is identified by a URL

• Given a URL, DriverManager is asked to
find the driver that can talk to the
corresponding database
• DriverManager tries all registered
drivers, until a suitable one is found

10
 Connecting to the Database

Connection con = DriverManager.
getConnection("jdbc.odbc:Books“,”userName”,”password” );

“jdbc.odbc:Books” URL

“userName” Login Name

“Password” Login Password

11
 Interaction with the Database

• We use Statement objects in order to

– Extract data from the database
– Update the database

• Three different interfaces are used:

Statement, PreparedStatement, CallableStatement

• All are interfaces, thus cannot be instantiated

• They are created by the Connection
 Querying with Statement
String queryStr =
"SELECT * FROM Member " +
"WHERE Name = 'harry potter'";

Statement stmt = con.createStatement();

ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(queryStr);

• The executeQuery method returns a ResultSet

object representing the query result.
•Will be discussed later…

13
 Changing DB with Statement
String deleteStr =
“DELETE FROM Member " +
"WHERE Name = ‘harry potter’";

Statement stmt = con.createStatement();

int delnum = stmt.executeUpdate(deleteStr);

• executeUpdate is used for data manipulation: insert, delete, update,

create table, etc. (anything other than querying!)
• executeUpdate returns the number of rows modified

14
 ResultSet
• A ResultSet provides access to a table of data
generated by executing a Statement
• Only one ResultSet per Statement can be open at
once
• The table rows are retrieved in sequence
– A ResultSet maintains a cursor pointing to its current
row of data
– The 'next' method moves the cursor to the next row
 ResultSet Methods
• boolean next()
– activates the next row
– the first call to next() activates the first row
– returns false if there are no more rows
• void close()
– disposes of the ResultSet
– allows you to re-use the Statement that created it
– automatically called by most Statement methods
 ResultSet Methods

• Type getType(int columnIndex)

– returns the given field as the given type
– fields indexed starting at 1 (not 0)
• Type getType(String columnName)
– same, but uses name of field
– less efficient
• int findColumn(String columnName)
– looks up column index given column name
 ResultSet Methods
• String getString(int columnIndex)
• boolean getBoolean(int columnIndex)
• byte getByte(int columnIndex)
• short getShort(int columnIndex)
• int getInt(int columnIndex)
• long getLong(int columnIndex)
• float getFloat(int columnIndex)
• double getDouble(int columnIndex)
• Date getDate(int columnIndex)
• Time getTime(int columnIndex)
• Timestamp getTimestamp(int columnIndex)
 ResultSet Methods
• String getString(String columnName)
• boolean getBoolean(String columnName)
• byte getByte(String columnName)
• short getShort(String columnName)
• int getInt(String columnName)
• long getLong(String columnName)
• float getFloat(String columnName)
• double getDouble(String columnName)
• Date getDate(String columnName)
• Time getTime(String columnName)
• Timestamp getTimestamp(String columnName)
 ResultSet Example

Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.
executeQuery("select name, age from Employees");    
// Print the result
while(rs.next()) {
 System.out.print(rs.getString(1) + ”:“);
 System.out.println(rs.getShort(“age”)+”“);
}

20
 Null Values

• In SQL, NULL means the field is empty

• Not the same as 0 or “”
• In JDBC, you must explicitly ask if a field
is null by calling ResultSet.isNull(column)
• For example, getInt(column) will return 0
if the value is either 0 or null!!
 ResultSet Meta-Data
A ResultSetMetaData is an object that can be used
to get information about the properties of the
columns in a ResultSet object.

An example: write the columns of the result set

ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
int numcols = rsmd.getColumnCount();

for (int i = 1 ; i <= numcols; i++) {

System.out.print(rsmd.getColumnLabel(i)+” “);
}

22
 Mapping Java Types to SQL
Types
SQL type Java Type
CHAR, VARCHAR, LONGVARCHAR String
NUMERIC, DECIMAL java.math.BigDecimal
BIT boolean
TINY INT byte
SMALL INT short
INTEGER int
BIG INT long
REAL float
FLOAT, DOUBLE double
BINARY, VARBINARY, LONGVARBINARY byte[]
DATE java.sql.Date
TIME java.sql.Time
TIMESTAMP java.sql.Timestamp
 Database Time
• Times in SQL are notoriously non-standard
• Java defines three classes to help
• java.sql.Date
– year, month, day
• java.sql.Time
– hours, minutes, seconds
• java.sql.Timestamp
– year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds
– usually use this one
 Cleaning Up After Yourself

• Remember to close the Connections, Statements and ResultSets

rs.close();
stmt.close();
con.close();

25
 Dealing With Exceptions

• Jdbc normaly throw ClassNotFoundException and SQLException like.

try {
Class.forName( "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver“);
connection = DriverManager.getConnection(
url, username, password );
}
catch (ClassNotFoundException cnfe) {
System.out.println(cnfe.getMessage());
}
26
 Dealing With Exceptions
An exception can have more exceptions in it.
•

catch (SQLException e) {
while (e != null) {
System.out.println(e.getSQLState());
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
System.out.println(e.getErrorCode());
e = e.getNextException();
}
}
27
 A Summary of JDBC application

loadDriver Class.forName( "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver" );

getConnection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(jdbc:odbc:Books,‘’”,“”);

createStatement statement = connection.createStatement();

execute(SQL) resultSet = statement.executeQuery(”SELECT * FROM Authors");

Result handling
while (resultSet.next()) {
...
no
Last
execution ? }
resultSet.close();
yes
closeStatment stmt.close();
con.close();
closeConnection
28