A Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) connector is an application programming interface (API) for Java, which helps to plug in any driver using JDBC technology. A JDBC connector makes it unnecessary to change the driver code to plug-and-play with Java applications.
A JDBC connector provides a way to establish connections with a database. It has the following characteristics:
- A collection of classes and interfaces for Java, written in the Java programming language
- An aid for writing database applications since it provides a standard API for database programmers
- A mechanism through which Java applications can talk to a wide range of databases
- A program which allows a programmer to write a single program once using the JDBC API, and then run it on any platform with the combination of Java and JDBC
- A way to easily send SQL statements to any relational database
- A low level interface using JDBC SQL commands (These commands can be invoked directly because JDBC is designed to be a base to build higher level interfaces and tools. JDBC also aids in establishing a connection with the databases and facilitates sending SQL statements and processing the result.)
Currently, the open database connectivity (ODBC) API is the most widely-used interface to access relational databases, because it provides the flexibility to connect to any database in any platform. However, it has its own disadvantages as well. There are four important reasons to use JDBC over the ODBC API:
- ODBC uses a C interface and requires calls to native C code from Java. This has many drawbacks such as in implementation, security and automatic portability of the application.
- Translation of the ODBC C API into the Java API is not feasible because Java has no pointers and ODBC is rich in pointers.
- JDBC is simple to use and offers simple solutions to queries, unlike ODBC, which requires drivers to be installed manually on each client machine.
- JDBC adapts the style and virtues of Java.
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