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Use Microsoft Access with Java

How do you connect to an Access-based database with JDBC?

By Tony Sintes, JavaWorld.com, 09/22/00

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Q Two questions:

  1. How do you connect to a Microsoft Access-based database (in a Windows system) using JDBC?
  2. In Class.forName(....) and DriverManager.getConnection(....), what driver and URL should you use?


AThere are two techniques available for connecting to a data source using JDBC. First, if your program will talk to an ODBC data source, you can use the JDBC-ODBC bridge included with your JDK. In the case of Sun, you would use sun.jdbc.odbc.JbdcOdbcDriver.

Specifically, using Class.forName: 

Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");


or the command line:

java -Djdbc.drivers=sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver <program name>


Second, you can connect to your data source through a third-party, vendor-specific bridge. In the case of a third party driver, you simply substitute that driver for the JDBC-ODBC bridge driver.

See the Resources section below for a link to Sun's database of available drivers.

Once you have a driver loaded and your data source set up, getting a connection is a simple matter of feeding the correct URL, name, and password to the getConnection() method.

A JDBC URL takes the following form:

jdbc:<subprotocol>:<subname>


In the case of Microsoft Access and the ODBC bridge, it would take the form:

jdbc:odbc:<NAME>


where <NAME> is the name that you gave the data source when you set it up.

As an aside for those using other drivers, <subprotocol> is the name of the connectivity mechanism used by the driver.

In my answer, I've assumed quite a bit of JDBC knowledge. If you're completely new to JDBC, or even if you just need to brush up your skills a bit, head on over to the JDBC Short Course (see Resources), an excellent training course that will get you up to speed quickly.

About the author

Tony Sintes is a principal consultant at BroadVision. Tony, a Sun-certified Java 1.1 programmer and Java 2 developer, has worked with Java since 1997.
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