Connecting to a data source using the DriverManager interface with the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ

A JDBC application can establish a connection to a data source using the JDBC DriverManager interface, which is part of the java.sql package.

The steps for establishing a connection are:

1. Load the JDBC driver by invoking the Class.forName method.

   If you are using JDBC 4.0 or later, you do not need to explicitly load the JDBC driver.

   For the IBM® Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ, you load the driver by invoking the Class.forName method with the following argument:

   com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver

   For compatibility with previous JDBC drivers, you can use the following argument instead:

   COM.ibm.db2os390.sqlj.jdbc.DB2SQLJDriver

   The following code demonstrates loading the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ:

   try {
     // Load the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ with DriverManager
     Class.forName("com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver");
   } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
   }

   The catch block is used to print an error if the driver is not found.
2. Connect to a data source by invoking the DriverManager.getConnection method.
   You can use one of the following forms of getConnection:

   getConnection(String url);
   getConnection(String url, user, password);
   getConnection(String url, java.util.Properties info); 

   For IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ type 4 connectivity, the getConnection method must specify a user ID and password, through parameters or through property values.

   The url argument represents a data source, and indicates what type of JDBC connectivity you are using.

   The info argument is an object of type java.util.Properties that contains a set of driver properties for the connection. Specifying the info argument is an alternative to specifying property=value; strings in the URL. See "Properties for the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ" for the properties that you can specify.

   There are several ways to specify a user ID and password for a connection:

   • Use the form of the getConnection method that specifies url with property=value; clauses, and include the user and password properties in the URL.
   • Use the form of the getConnection method that specifies user and password.
   • Use the form of the getConnection method that specifies info, after setting the user and password properties in a java.util.Properties object.

String url = "jdbc:db2://myhost:5021/mydb:" +
  "user=dbadm;password=dbadm;";

                                          // Set URL for data source
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url); 
                                          // Create connection

String url = "jdbc:db2://myhost:5021/mydb";
                                          // Set URL for data source
String user = "dbadm";
String password = "dbadm";
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, password); 
                                          // Create connection

Properties properties = new Properties(); // Create Properties object
properties.put("user", "dbadm");         // Set user ID for connection
properties.put("password", "dbadm");     // Set password for connection
String url = "jdbc:db2://myhost:5021/mydb";
                                          // Set URL for data source
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, properties); 
                                          // Create connection