How many ways are there to register a driver in Java?

In this article, we will learn different ways to register a driver in Java. JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) is a standard API used to connect Java applications with databases. Before interacting with a database, you must register the JDBC driver so that the DriverManager can recognize and load it.

To connect with a database using JDBC, you need to select the driver for the respective database and register the driver. You can register a database driver in two ways:

• Using Class.forName() method
• Using the registerDriver() method

Register Driver Using Class.forName() Method

The forName() method of the class named Class accepts a class name as a String parameter and loads it into the memory, Soon the is loaded into the memory, it gets registered automatically.

Syntax

The following is the syntax:

Class.forName();

Registering the Driver using forName() method:

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

Example

Following the JDBC program establishes a connection with the MySQL database using the forName() method:

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
public class RegisterDriverExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws SQLException {
      //Registering the Driver
      Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
      //Getting the connection
      String mysqlUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/mydatabase";
      Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(mysqlUrl, "root", "password");
      System.out.println("Connection established: "+con);
   }
}

Output

Connection established: com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4Connection@4fccd51b

Register Driver Using registerDriver() Method

The registerDriver() method of the DriverManager class accepts an object of the driver class as a parameter and registers it with the JDBC driver manager.

Syntax

The following is the syntax:

DriverManager.registerDriver();

Registering the Driver using registerDriver() method:

Driver myDriver = new com.mysql.jdbc.Driver();
DriverManager.registerDriver(myDriver);

Example

Following the JDBC program establishes a connection with the MySQL database using the registerDriver() method:

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
public class RegisterDriverExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws SQLException {
      //Registering the Driver
      DriverManager.registerDriver(new com.mysql.jdbc.Driver());
      //Getting the connection
      String mysqlUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/mydatabase";
      Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(mysqlUrl, "root", "password");
      System.out.println("Connection established: "+con);
   }
}

Output

Connection established: com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4Connection@4fccd51b