Working with a connection

Download JDBC driver

The following sections provide examples of the different ways to connect to a SQL Server database by using the SQLServerConnection class of the Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server.

Creating a connection by using the DriverManager class

The simplest approach to creating a connection to a SQL Server database is to load the JDBC driver and call the getConnection method of the DriverManager class, as in the following:

Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");  
String connectionUrl = "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost;encrypt=true;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;"  
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionUrl);  

This technique will create a database connection using the first available driver in the list of drivers that can successfully connect with the given URL.

Creating a connection by using the SQLServerDriver class

If you have to specify a particular driver in the list of drivers for DriverManager, you can create a database connection by using the connect method of the SQLServerDriver class, as in the following:

Driver d = (Driver) Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver").newInstance();  
String connectionUrl = "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost;encrypt=true;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;"  
Connection con = d.connect(connectionUrl, new Properties());  

Creating a connection by using the SQLServerDataSource class

If you have to create a connection by using the SQLServerDataSource class, you can use various setter methods of the class before you call the getConnection method, as in the following:

SQLServerDataSource ds = new SQLServerDataSource();  
ds.setUser("MyUserName");  
ds.setPassword("*****");  
ds.setServerName("localhost");  
ds.setPortNumber(1433);
ds.setDatabaseName("AdventureWorks");  
Connection con = ds.getConnection();  

Creating a connection that targets a specific data source

If you have to make a database connection that targets a specific data source, there are a number of approaches that you can take. Each approach depends on the properties that you set by using the connection URL.

To connect to the default instance on a remote server, use the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;encrypt=true;integratedSecurity=true;"

To connect to a specific port on a server, use the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer:1533;encrypt=true;integratedSecurity=true;"

To connect to a named instance on a server, use the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://209.196.43.19;encrypt=true;instanceName=INSTANCE1;integratedSecurity=true;"

To connect to a specific database on a server, use the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://172.31.255.255;encrypt=true;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;"

For more connection URL examples, see Building the connection URL.

Creating a connection with a custom login timeout

If you have to adjust for server load or network traffic, you can create a connection that has a specific login timeout value described in seconds, as in the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;encrypt=true;loginTimeout=90;integratedSecurity=true;"

Create a connection with application-level identity

If you have to use logging and profiling, you will have to identify your connection as originating from a specific application, as in the following example:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;encrypt=true;applicationName=MYAPP.EXE;integratedSecurity=true;"

Closing a connection

You can explicitly close a database connection by calling the close method of the SQLServerConnection class, as in the following:

con.close();

This will release the database resources that the SQLServerConnection object is using, or return the connection to the connection pool in pooled scenarios.

See also

Connecting to SQL Server with the JDBC driver