MySQL provides connectivity for client applications developed in the Java programming language via a JDBC driver, which is called MySQL Connector/J.

MySQL Connector/J is a JDBC Type 4 driver. Different versions are available that are compatible with the JDBC 3.0 and JDBC 4.0 specifications. The Type 4 designation means that the driver is pure-Java implementation of the MySQL protocol and does not rely on the MySQL client libraries.

Although JDBC is useful by itself, we would hope that if you are not familiar with JDBC that after reading the first few sections of this manual, that you would avoid using naked JDBC for all but the most trivial problems and consider using one of the popular persistence frameworks such as Hibernate, Spring's JDBC templates or Ibatis SQL Maps to do the majority of repetitive work and heavier lifting that is sometimes required with JDBC.

This section is not designed to be a complete JDBC tutorial. If you need more information about using JDBC you might be interested in the following online tutorials that are more in-depth than the information presented here:

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MySQL Enterprise.  MySQL Enterprise subscribers will find more information about using JDBC with MySQL in the Knowledge Base articles about JDBC. Access to the MySQL Knowledge Base collection of articles is one of the advantages of subscribing to MySQL Enterprise. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.