JDBC 1: Set up

First, set up a MySQL database. For the purposes of this demonstration I set up a simple database called bluecoat with one table: student. The table has four columns of type varchar: Forename, Surname, Gender and Form.

Update: Follow this link to watch a YouTube demonstration of this lesson

You will need to download the mysql-connector JAR and add it to your classpath. Consult your IDE’s documentation on how to do this.

You can find the JAR here: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/

If you’re using Netbeans, right click on the Libraries folder and choose Add JAR/Folder

The JAR is installed by default in the ext folder on windows:

The following code will connect to a database called bluecoat running on a mysql server on port 3306 of localhost. I used XAMPP to write this tutorial: by default the username of the database was root, the password was left blank.

try {
//Load mysql jdbc Driver      
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance();
// Connect to Database      
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/bluecoat", "root", "");
} catch (Exception ex) {
      System.err.println(ex);
}