Loading Driver Class with Class.forName()

This section provides a tutorial program on how to load Microsoft JDBC Driver 1.0 class explicitly using the Class.forName() method.

If you are using an older version of JDK, you need to load the JDBC driver class yourself. To do this you need to use the Class.forName() method to load the driver class, com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver, which represents the Microsoft JDBC Driver.

Here is my sample program to load Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.2 class explicitly using the forName() method:

/* ConnectionTest1.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.sql.*;
public class ConnectionTest1 {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {

// Load Microsoft JDBC Driver
      Class.forName(
        "com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
      System.out.println("JDBC driver loaded ok.");

    } catch (java.lang.ClassNotFoundException e) {
      System.err.println("ClassNotFoundException: "
        +e.getMessage());
    }
  }
}

Run this program:

herong> java ConnectionTest1.java

ClassNotFoundException: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver

I was getting this exception, because I forgot to add the JDBC driver jar file to the classpath in the "-cp" option. Here is the correct way to run this Java program with the JDBC driver jar file:

herong> java -cp .;mssql-jdbc-9.4.1.jre16.jar ConnectionTest1.java

JDBC driver loaded ok.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Introduction

 JDK (Java SE) Installation

 Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition

Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

 Installing Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

 Loading Driver Class Automatically

Loading Driver Class with Class.forName()

 DriverManager.getConnection() and Connection URL

 Enable TCP/IP with SQL Server Configuration Manager

 Specifying Port Number in Connection URL

 Instance Name Better than Port Number

 Specifying Instance Name in Connection URL

 Closing the Database Connection - con.close()

 Specifying Database Name in Connection URL

 Incorrect Database Name in Connection URL

 Creating Connections with DataSource Class

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - Query Statements and Result Sets

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DatabaseMetaData Object

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DDL Statements

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DML Statements

 SQL Server - PreparedStatement

 SQL Server CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - Flat Text Files

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS Access

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS SQL Server

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB