Understanding JBDC Operations

The designers of JDBC had several objectives when they created their specifications. They wanted to give developers the maximum amount of flexibility when coding their applications and making their SQL requests. They also wanted to hide the details of creating and managing a connection to a DBMS to the maximum degree possible. This is in keeping with the "write once, run anywhere" philosophy of Java.

Question: What types of services does JDBC offer to applications?
JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) offers a variety of services to applications that enable them to interact with relational databases:

1. Connection management: JDBC provides a set of APIs to establish and manage connections to a database. This includes creating, opening, closing, and reusing database connections.
2. Statement execution: JDBC allows applications to execute SQL statements on the database using various types of statements such as PreparedStatement, CallableStatement, and Statement. These statements can be used to create, read, update, and delete data from the database.
3. Result set handling: JDBC provides APIs for retrieving and handling the result set returned from the database after executing a query. Applications can use these APIs to iterate over the result set and extract data.
4. Transaction management: JDBC supports transactions, which allow applications to execute a set of SQL statements as a single unit of work. Applications can use JDBC APIs to begin, commit, or rollback transactions.
5. Metadata handling: JDBC provides metadata APIs that allow applications to retrieve information about the database, such as its structure, schema, and data types. This information can be used to dynamically generate SQL statements or to build user interfaces.

JDBC offers a comprehensive set of services that enable Java applications to interact with relational databases in a flexible, efficient, and portable manner.

JDBC provides two services to a Java application.

1. One is the database access task--here SQL commands are composed and sent to the database.
2. The second is the messy business of connecting to the database system itself and providing the information needed to deal with that process.

Since nearly all relational DBMS use SQL for database management, the JDBC designers decided to adopt a model that would allow developers to pass SQL requests, untranslated, directly to the DBMS being used. These SQL commands are composed by a developer, packaged as a text string, and sent to the database for processing. The underlying connection that transports the SQL request is separated from that process and managed through a different layer of software.

That connection layer manages the details about what is required to connect to a specific DBMS system. This is called a database driver and is handled and loaded by a driver manager class.
This separation of work makes JDBC very powerful. It makes it easier to write applications that are not as tightly tied to a specific database system as they might otherwise be. This helps preserve the portability of the application.
It also limits and places bounds on the non-object orientedness introduced into a Java application. The JDBC wraps access to the non-object oriented world of a relational database in an object-oriented format. This keeps JBDC methods consistent with the style and strengths of Java applications.

Click the Exercise link below to analyze where JDBC could be used to solve your client's business problem.
Understanding JDBC - Exercise