Databases and JDBC

Study for Week 5

This week we will be looking at how to connect to databases using JDBC.

This is our first week of persistence layer technologies. We will start with a quick look at how to use JDBC to connect to a database, then investigate some of the performance, security and maintainability issues.

At the end of this session, students should be able to:

  • Understand the purpose of JDBC
  • Use JDBC to connect to a database
  • Prevent SQL injection attacks
  • Explain how connection pooling improves performance
  • Use the data access object design pattern
Full slides and detailed notes

Why databases?

Why should we use databases when developing applications, and what is the JavaDB database?

JDBC

JDBC is the fundamental technology for accessing a database using Java:

JDBC details

A more detailed look at features of JDBC:

JDBC performance

Types of JDBC drivers and how to use connection pooling to improve performance:

Design patterns for data access code

If you would like to study further, you may like to refer to this tutorial:
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/jdbc/index.htm

You can also refer to Chapters 3 and 4 of Database Programming with JDBC & Java:
http://find.lib.uts.edu.au/?R=OPAC_b2916561

Basic working knowledge of SQL will be assumed. If you would like to practice your SQL, this site has interactive tutorials:
http://sqlzoo.net/wiki/Main_Page