Setting Up a Database

We will assume that the database COFFEEBREAK already exists. (Creating a database is not at all difficult, but it requires special permissions and is normally done by a database administrator.) When you create the tables used as examples in this tutorial, they will be in the default database. We purposely kept the size and number of tables small to keep things manageable.

Suppose that our sample database is being used by the proprietor of a small coffee house called The Coffee Break, where coffee beans are sold by the pound and brewed coffee is sold by the cup. To keep things simple, also suppose that the proprietor needs only two tables, one for types of coffee and one for coffee suppliers.

First we will show you how to open a connection with your DBMS, and then, since what JDBC does is to send your SQL code to your DBMS, we will demonstrate some SQL code. After that, we will show you how easy it is to use JDBC to pass these SQL statements to your DBMS and process the results that are returned. For your convenience, the JDBC code used in this chapter is available on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book.

This code has been tested on most of the major DBMS products. However, you may encounter some compatibility problems using it with older ODBC drivers with the JDBC-ODBC Bridge.

JDBC Basics