Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) that allows a Java application to access any database that supports Structured Query Language (SQL) as its standard data access language.
The JDBC API includes classes for common SQL database activities that allow you to open connections to databases, execute SQL commands, and process results. Consequently, Java programs have the capability to use the familiar SQL programming model of issuing SQL statements and processing the resulting data. The JDBC classes are included in Java 1.1+ and Java 2 as the java.sql package.
The JDBC API defines the following:
A library of JDBC function calls that connect to a database, execute SQL statements, and retrieve results
A standard way to connect and log in to a DBMS
SQL syntax based on the X/Open SQL Call Level Interface or X/Open and SQL Access Group (SAG) CAE specification (1992)
A standard representation for datatypes
A standard set of error codes
JDBC API implementations fall into two broad categories: those that communicate with an existing ODBC driver (a JDBC-ODBC bridge) and those that communicate with a native database API (a JDBC driver that converts JDBC calls into the communications protocol used by the specific database vendor). The InfoMaker implementation of the JDBC interface can be used to connect to any database for which a JDBC-compliant driver exists.
A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is required to interpret and execute the bytecode of a Java program. The InfoMaker JDB interface supports the Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) versions 1.2 and later.
