"JDBC Pocket Reference" by Donald Bales is another great reference book from O'Reilly. Like many of O'Reilly's pocket reference books, the book has a small form factor. You can easily carry the book in your briefcase or back pocket. The book is only 145 pages long. The first 45 pages give a terse and concise explanation of how to use the JDBC API and the last 100 pages provides a quick reference to the JDBC 2.0 API. The following paragraphs provide more detail on how the book can be used by a programmer. The book is intended for programmers, but could also be applicable to ambitious database administrators (DBA) that want to create Java utilities to monitor and automate some of their DBA tasks. If you are familiar with SQL and database topics the book can provide you with a quick reference on syntax and procedures that you might forget. The book is not a tutorial on SQL, client/server programming, or relational databases. If you are not familiar with these topics or you want to learn more the JDBC Pocket Reference is not for you.
The first 45 pages of the book are packed with helpful examples of how to use the JDBC API. Most JDBC programmers are familiar with these examples but often need reminders on proper syntax for different database vendors and drivers. Here are a few examples of explanations I found helpful:
1. JDBC Driver types: There are four classes of JDBC drivers called type 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Type 4 is the only pure 100% Java driver and is the only type described in the book, but it is helpful to understand what driver types are available.
2. Database URL Syntax: Getting the proper database connection string can be frustrating since every database vendor is different. This task is usually done only once at the start of a project so it is easy to forget the correct syntax. The Pocket Reference describes 9 different database drivers giving the appropriate connection information, online references, archive file name, and supported properties for the driver.
3. Using JNDI to obtain a data source.
4. Using DatabaseMetaData API to find information about the database properties and capabilities.
5. Good examples for executing standard SQL statements and retrieving the results through the ResultSet interface.
6. Store Procedures: Using the CallableStatement object to execute a stored procedure is one of the most difficult JDBC calls because stored procedures are vendor dependent. The book outlines how to set input and output parameters appropriately to make the call. I found this very helpful since a lot of the documentation from database vendors do not describe this operation very well.
7. Properly handling "null" values in JDBC. This is important because a database NULL is different than a Java null.
8. Inserting and updating binary blobs is explained.
9. Describes and explains how to use User-Defined Data Types (UDTs) to help you map objects to a relational database.
10. Describes proper escape sequences ensure that your JDBC code is portable across database vendors.
The only criticism I have for the book is its lack of examples for database connection pooling and transaction support. Committing and rolling back transactions was mentioned briefly, but the book didn't give any examples. Also, the only reference to distributed transaction support was in the JDBC API reference under the XAConnection class. Distributed transaction support is a big part of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and comes standard with most J2EE containers. Then again this is just a pocket reference so the author couldn't include everything.
... I highly recommend it for any programmer that works with database systems. The books provides a quick reminder on proper syntax and procedures without requiring you to carry a backpack full of 500 page books.