jDataLab

2 minute read

In a computer system, an adaptor program is required for making a connection to another system of different type. Similar to connecting a printer to a computer by using a printer driver, a DBMS (database management system) needs a database driver that enables a database connection in other systems. (Last updated on 2020-11-7)

A database driver is a computer program that implements a protocol (ODBC or JDBC) for a database connection.

The driver works like an adaptor which connects a generic interface to a specific database vendor implementation. To make a database connection in a Java application, we need a JDBC (Java Database Connectivity API) driver. To connect with individual databases, JDBC requires drivers for each specific database type.

Access MySQL in Visual Studio Code

Setting up a database connection in Visual Studio Code provides a way of running SQL queries anywhere. The video shows you how to complete this in eight steps.

Access MySQL in Python and R

  • pip install mysql-connector-python
  • The screen recording shows: Connect to MySQL. Execute SQL commands. Use either R or SQL chunk in R Markdown. Write the resulting set to data frame. Perform exploratory data analysis and visualization.

Access MySQL in Java

For instance, if a Java application requires a connection to data source from MySQL database, we need to include the library MySQL JDBC Driver which is a Jar file, namely mysql-connector-java-5.1.23-bin.jar. The version number in the Jar file can be different. The name of the driver is com.mysql.jdbc.Driver.

In a Java application project in NetBeans IDE, the MySQL JDBC Driver can be imported by right-click the node Libraries in the Projects tab window.

add mysql jdbc

Next, if you want to know how to use interfaces in a JDBC driver to access a database in a Java application, you may continue to read Accessing Databases with JDBC.