Question

I am learning to enable my Java application to communicate with a MS Access database.

I am unsure of one method, the Class.forName() method. The parameter I pass is “sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver”, which loads the jdbc:odbc bridge for accessing a database.

What does the Class.forName() do exactly and why is it needed?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Class.forName() causes ClassLoader to load the class into memory. JDBC driver classes have static initializers that register them with DriverManager for further use. After you use Class.forName(), and use DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:*", database, username, password), the jdbc: is already loaded in memory.