How can you load the JDBC driver ?

Loading the driver or drivers

Example Load JDBC-ODBC Bridge driver

Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");

Vendors of the driver will give the class name to use with the documentation.

If the class name is jdbc.DriverXYZ, load the driver using :

Class.forName("jdbc.DriverXYZ");

What will Class.forName do while loading drivers ?

It is used to create an instance of a driver and register it with the DriverManager.

When you have loaded a driver, it is available for making a connection with a DBMS.

Get Connection of different databases

MySQL

Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");

Connection connection = connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql /hostname ort/dbname", 

                            "username",  "password");

//..........

connection.close();

Oracle

Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");

Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:port:SID", 

                            "username", "password");

//..........

connection.close();

PostgreSQL

Class.forName("org.postgresql.Driver");

Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:postgresql://hostname:port/dbname",

                            "username",  "password");

//..........

connection.close();