Loading JDBC Driver for MySQL Server

JDBC Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Loading JDBC Driver for MySQL Server

This section describes how to load the MySQL JDBC driver class - mysql-connector-java-xxx-bin.jar.

If you are using JDK 8 or higher, it will automatically load the MySQL JDBC driver, as long as the JAR file is included in the classpath. There is no need to call Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver") to load the driver class explicitly Here is a tutorial program to show you how JDBC loads the MySQL JDBC driver:

/* MySqlLoadDriver.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
public class MySqlLoadDriver {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {
      System.out.println("Before loading SQLServerDriver:");
      listDrivers();

// Load the MySQL JDBC driver - new class name
      Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver");

// Load the MySQL JDBC driver - old class name
      // Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");

      System.out.println("After loading SQLServerDriver:");
      listDrivers();

    } catch (Exception e) {
      System.err.println("Exception: "+e.getMessage());
    }
  }
  private static void listDrivers() {
    Enumeration driverList = DriverManager.getDrivers();
    while (driverList.hasMoreElements()) {
      Driver driverClass = (Driver) driverList.nextElement();
      System.out.println("   "+driverClass.getClass().getName());
    }
  }
}

The compilation and execution tests with the latest version of JDK were recorded below:

herong> javac MySqlLoadDriver.java

herong> java -cp .:mysql-connector-java.jar MySqlLoadDriver
Before loading SQLServerDriver:
   com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
After loading SQLServerDriver:
   com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver

As you can see from the output, there is no need to call Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver") to load the driver class explicitly. The driver class is loaded automatically by the JVM, if the driver class JAR is in the classpath.

By the way, the classpath delimiter is ":" on macOS and Linux systems. For Windows systems, you need to use ";".

Old versions of JDK and/or MySQL JDBC driver may behave differently. For example, here is the output of the same program with JDK 8 and MySQL JDBC 5.1.36 driver. I am not sure what the "com.mysql.fabric.jdbc.FabricMySQLDriver" driver class is for.

herong> javac MySqlLoadDriver.java

herong> java -cp .:mysql-connector-java-5.1.36-bin.jar MySqlLoadDriver

Before loading SQLServerDriver:
   com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
   com.mysql.fabric.jdbc.FabricMySQLDriver
After loading SQLServerDriver:
   com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
   com.mysql.fabric.jdbc.FabricMySQLDriver