In this article, we will learn and list down the steps to connect MS Access database in Java 8 and finally executing a simple query to test whether connected database works as expected

We will divide this article into 2 parts

• MS Access database
• JDBC application for MS Access database using Java 8

 

JDBC program to connect MS Access Database

• Check MS Access database interaction through Java JDBC API for Java 1.7 or lower versions

 

Part 1: MS Access Database

Before working with JDBC API to interact with database (to be specific MS Access database for this example), we need to set up MS Access database and create required things like,

• Create database
• Create table (inside newly created database)
• Insert few sample records (inside newly created table)

It’s very easy,

• Open Microsoft Office Access 2007 Database
• Create new table called “Player”
• Add 4 fields like Player_ID, Name, Age & Matches
• And finally insert couple of records
• As shown in the below screen-capture

 

Part 2: JDBC application using Java 8

• As we are completed set up & ready with MS Access database
• next step is to figure out essential things required to query the database
• from Java application using JDBC API in Java 8

2.1 Pre-requisite:

• Loading MS Access driver class for Java 8 (ucanaccess.jdbc.UcanaccessDriver)
• Database URL formation (database file location)
• Required JAR files as listed below in the screen-capture

2.2 To download required JARS:

• ucanaccess-4.0.1
• hsqldb-2.3.1
• jackcess-2.1.6
• commons-logging-1.1.1
• commons-lang-2.6

2.3 JDBC program to connect and query MS Access database/table

• Once we are ready with above listed things
• Then we can go ahead and code an example to connect MS Access database
• Finally querying database

MsAccessDatabaseConnectionInJava8.java

package in.bench.resources.msaccess.db.example;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;

public class MsAccessDatabaseConnectionInJava8 {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// variables
		Connection connection = null;
		Statement statement = null;
		ResultSet resultSet = null;

		// Step 1: Loading or 
		// registering Oracle JDBC driver class
		try {

			Class.forName("net.ucanaccess.jdbc.UcanaccessDriver");
		}
		catch(ClassNotFoundException cnfex) {

			System.out.println("Problem in loading or "
					+ "registering MS Access JDBC driver");
			cnfex.printStackTrace();
		}

		// Step 2: Opening database connection
		try {

			String msAccDB = "D:/WORKSPACE/TEST_WORKSPACE"
					+ "/Java-JDBC/Player.accdb";
			String dbURL = "jdbc:ucanaccess://" 
					+ msAccDB; 

			// Step 2.A: Create and 
			// get connection using DriverManager class
			connection = DriverManager.getConnection(dbURL); 

			// Step 2.B: Creating JDBC Statement 
			statement = connection.createStatement();

			// Step 2.C: Executing SQL and 
			// retrieve data into ResultSet
			resultSet = statement.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM PLAYER");

			System.out.println("ID\tName\t\t\tAge\tMatches");
			System.out.println("==\t================\t===\t=======");

			// processing returned data and printing into console
			while(resultSet.next()) {
				System.out.println(resultSet.getInt(1) + "\t" + 
						resultSet.getString(2) + "\t" + 
						resultSet.getString(3) + "\t" +
						resultSet.getString(4));
			}
		}
		catch(SQLException sqlex){
			sqlex.printStackTrace();
		}
		finally {
			// Step 3: Closing database connection
			try {
				if(null != connection) {
					// cleanup resources, once after processing
					resultSet.close();
					statement.close();

					// and then finally close connection
					connection.close();
				}
			}
			catch (SQLException sqlex) {
				sqlex.printStackTrace();
			}
		}
	}
}

Output:

ID	Name			Age	Matches
==	================	===	=======
1	Sachin Tendulkar	43	200
2	Shane Warne		45	145
3	Kevin Pietersen	36	104
4	Shahid Afridi		36	27
5	Brian Lara		46	131
6	Graeme Smith		36	117
7	Mahela Jayawardene	38	145

2.4 Download:

• MS Access database connection example

 

Difference between Java 1.7 and Java 1.8 versions ?

• Until Java 1.7 version, we are using Jdbc-Odbc bridge to connect MS Access database using the JDBC driver class sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
• Whereas in Java 1.8 version, ucanaccess driver should be used to connect to MS Access database using driver class net.ucanaccess.jdbc.UcanaccessDriver

 

Read Also:

• Introduction to JDBC
• Different types of JDBC drivers
• JDBC Driver list for all leading databases
• Basic components of JDBC
• JDBC connection steps
• Oracle database connection steps
• MySQL database connection steps
• MS Access database connection steps until Java 7 version

 

References:

• https://www.databasestar.com/jdbc-in-java/
• https://dev.mysql.com/doc/connector-j/5.1/en/connector-j-usagenotes-connect-drivermanager.html
• http://ucanaccess.sourceforge.net/site.html
• http://www.benchresources.net/spring-jdbc-introduction-and-jdbc-example-without-spring/
• https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/basics/gettingstarted.html
• https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/java.112/e16548/overvw.htm#JJDBC28025
• http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/basics/index.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC_driver
• http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/28818
• https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#forName(java.lang.String)
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21955256/manipulating-an-access-database-from-java-without-odbc

 

Happy Coding !!
Happy Learning !!