What is JDBC? Compare JDBC with ODBC. How do you execute SQL queries in JDBC?

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) is a Java API (Application Programming Interface) used for connecting Java applications with databases. JDBC allows Java programs to interact with various types of databases, such as Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, and others, using SQL (Structured Query Language) statements.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard API used for connecting applications with databases, similar to JDBC. However, ODBC is a platform-independent API that can be used with different programming languages, such as C++, Python, and others. ODBC provides a common interface for accessing various types of databases.

One significant difference between JDBC and ODBC is that JDBC is written in Java, whereas ODBC is written in C. Because of this, JDBC is specific to the Java programming language, while ODBC can be used with multiple programming languages.

To execute SQL queries in JDBC, you need to follow these steps:

1. Load the JDBC driver: Before connecting to the database, you need to load the JDBC driver for the particular database you want to connect to. You can do this using the Class.forName() method.
2. Establish a connection: Once the driver is loaded, you can establish a connection to the database using the DriverManager.getConnection() method.
3. Create a statement: After establishing a connection, you need to create a statement object using the createStatement() method. This statement object is used to execute SQL queries.
4. Execute SQL queries: You can execute SQL queries using the executeQuery() method on the statement object. The executeQuery() method returns a ResultSet object that contains the results of the SQL query.
5. Process the results: Once you have a ResultSet object, you can process the results of the SQL query using methods like next(), getInt(), getString(), and others.
6. Close the connection: Finally, you need to close the connection using the close() method.