MySQL Connector/J Download: Get the Latest Version of the JDBC Driver for MySQL
- broodosytmiccari
- Aug 8, 2023
- 13 min read
How to Download and Use MySQL Connector/J
MySQL Connector/J is a Java library that allows you to connect to MySQL databases and perform various operations using the JDBC and X DevAPI interfaces. In this article, you will learn what MySQL Connector/J is, how to download and install it, how to use it with JDBC and X DevAPI, and what are the benefits of using it.
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What is MySQL Connector/J?
MySQL Connector/J is the official JDBC driver for MySQL. It also supports the new X DevAPI, which is a modern, fluent, and intuitive way of working with both relational and document data in MySQL.
A JDBC and X DevAPI driver for MySQL
JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity, which is a standard API for accessing databases from Java applications. JDBC provides a set of classes and interfaces that allow you to execute SQL statements, retrieve results, handle errors, manage transactions, and more.
X DevAPI is a new interface that enables you to work with both relational and document data in MySQL using a common set of CRUD operations. CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete, which are the basic operations for manipulating data. X DevAPI also supports advanced features such as schemaless collections, JSON documents, expressions, transactions, locking, indexes, etc.
A Type 4 driver that is platform independent
MySQL Connector/J is a JDBC Type 4 driver, which means that it is a pure Java implementation of the MySQL protocol and does not rely on any native libraries or client software. This makes it platform independent and compatible with any operating system that supports Java.
Compatible with MySQL 5.6 and above
MySQL Connector/J 8.0 is compatible with all MySQL versions starting with MySQL 5.6. Additionally, MySQL Connector/J 8.0 supports the new features and enhancements introduced in MySQL 8.0, such as roles, window functions, common table expressions, JSON functions, etc.
How to Download MySQL Connector/J?
There are two ways to download MySQL Connector/J:
From the official website
You can download MySQL Connector/J from the official website at . You can choose from different formats such as zip, tar.gz, msi, dmg, etc. depending on your operating system. You can also select the operating system from the drop-down menu to get the recommended download option.
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From the terminal using wget or curl
If you prefer to download MySQL Connector/J from the terminal using wget or curl commands, you can follow these steps:
Go to and find the download link for the format and operating system of your choice.
Copy the download link and paste it in the terminal after the wget or curl command. For example, if you want to download the zip file for Linux, you can use the following command:
wget
Wait for the download to complete and verify that the file is downloaded successfully.
How to Install MySQL Connector/J?
Installing MySQL Connector/J is very easy and straightforward. You just need to follow these steps:
Copy the jar file to a suitable location
After downloading MySQL Connector/J, you need to extract the jar file from the downloaded archive. The jar file is named mysql-connector-java-version.jar, where version is the version number of MySQL Connector/J. For example, for MySQL Connector/J 8.0.26, the jar file is named mysql-connector-java-8.0.26.jar.
You can copy this jar file to any location on your system that is accessible by your Java application. For example, you can copy it to your home directory, your project directory, or a common library directory.
Add the jar file to the classpath
The next step is to add the jar file to the classpath of your Java application. The classpath is a list of directories and files that Java uses to find and load classes at runtime. You can set the classpath using different methods depending on how you run your Java application.
For example, if you run your Java application from the command line using the java command, you can use the -cp or -classpath option to specify the classpath. You need to include the path to the jar file in the classpath, separated by a colon (:) on Linux or a semicolon (;) on Windows. For example, if you copied the jar file to your home directory, you can use the following command:
java -cp .:/mysql-connector-java-8.0.26.jar YourApplication
If you use an IDE such as Eclipse or NetBeans to develop and run your Java application, you can add the jar file to the build path or library path of your project using the IDE settings.
How to Use MySQL Connector/J?
Once you have installed MySQL Connector/J, you can use it to connect to MySQL databases and perform various operations using either JDBC or X DevAPI.
With JDBC API
To use MySQL Connector/J with JDBC API, you need to follow these steps:
Load the driver class
The first step is to load the driver class of MySQL Connector/J using the Class.forName() method. The driver class is com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver. You need to pass this class name as a string argument to the Class.forName() method. For example:
Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver");
This will register the driver with the DriverManager, which is a class that manages the available drivers and connections.
Obtain a connection from the DriverManager
The next step is to obtain a connection object from the DriverManager using the getConnection() method. The getConnection() method takes a connection URL as a string argument and returns a Connection object that represents a physical connection to a database. The connection URL has the following format:
jdbc:mysql://host:port/database?properties
where host is the hostname or IP address of the MySQL server, port is the port number of the MySQL server (default is 3306), database is the name of the database to connect to, and properties are optional parameters that specify various connection settings such as user name, password, character encoding, SSL mode, etc.
For example, if you want to connect to a database named test on a local MySQL server with user name root and password root123, you can use the following connection URL:
jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test?user=root&password=root123
You can pass this connection URL as a string argument to the DriverManager.getConnection() method and assign the returned Connection object to a variable. For example:
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test?user=root&password=root123");
Execute queries and updates using Statement or PreparedStatement
After obtaining a connection object, you can use it to create Statement or PreparedStatement objects, which are used to execute SQL queries and updates on the database. A Statement object is used to execute a static SQL statement, while a PreparedStatement object is used to execute a parameterized SQL statement. A parameterized SQL statement is a statement that contains placeholders for values that are supplied at runtime.
To create a Statement object, you can use the createStatement() method of the Connection object. For example:
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
To create a PreparedStatement object, you can use the prepareStatement() method of the Connection object. You need to pass the parameterized SQL statement as a string argument to the prepareStatement() method. For example, if you want to create a PreparedStatement object for inserting a record into a table named users, you can use the following statement:
PreparedStatement pstmt = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO users (name, email, age) VALUES (?, ?, ?)");
The question marks (?) in the statement are placeholders for the values that will be provided later.
To execute a query using a Statement object, you can use the executeQuery() method, which takes a SQL query as a string argument and returns a ResultSet object that contains the results of the query. For example, if you want to execute a query that selects all records from the users table, you can use the following code:
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM users");
To execute an update using a Statement object, you can use the executeUpdate() method, which takes a SQL update as a string argument and returns an int value that indicates the number of rows affected by the update. For example, if you want to execute an update that deletes all records from the users table, you can use the following code:
int rows = stmt.executeUpdate("DELETE FROM users");
To execute a query or an update using a PreparedStatement object, you need to first set the values for the placeholders using the setXXX() methods, where XXX is the data type of the value. For example, if you want to set the values for the name, email, and age parameters in the previous PreparedStatement object, you can use the following code:
pstmt.setString(1, "Alice"); pstmt.setString(2, "alice@example.com"); pstmt.setInt(3, 25);
The first argument of the setXXX() methods is the index of the placeholder, starting from 1. The second argument is the value to be set.
After setting the values for the placeholders, you can use the executeQuery() or executeUpdate() methods of the PreparedStatement object to execute the statement. For example:
ResultSet rs = pstmt.executeQuery(); // for queries int rows = pstmt.executeUpdate(); // for updates
Handle results using ResultSet or ResultSetMetaData
After executing a query using a Statement or PreparedStatement object, you can use the ResultSet object to access and process the results. A ResultSet object represents a table of data that contains rows and columns. You can use various methods of the ResultSet object to move through the rows and get the values of the columns.
For example, you can use the next() method to move to the next row in the ResultSet object. The next() method returns true if there is a next row and false if there are no more rows. You can use this method in a while loop to iterate over all rows in the ResultSet object. For example:
while (rs.next()) // do something with each row
You can use the getXXX() methods to get the values of the columns in the current row. The getXXX() methods take an int or a String argument that specifies the index or the name of the column, respectively. The XXX is the data type of the column, such as String, Int, Date, etc. For example, if you want to get the values of the name, email, and age columns in the current row, you can use the following code:
String name = rs.getString("name"); String email = rs.getString("email"); int age = rs.getInt("age");
You can also use the ResultSetMetaData object to get information about the columns in the ResultSet object, such as their names, types, sizes, etc. You can obtain a ResultSetMetaData object by calling the getMetaData() method of the ResultSet object. For example:
ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
You can use various methods of the ResultSetMetaData object to get information about the columns. For example, you can use the getColumnCount() method to get the number of columns in the ResultSet object, and use the getColumnName() method to get the name of a column by its index. For example:
int columnCount = rsmd.getColumnCount(); String columnName = rsmd.getColumnName(1);
Close the connection and resources
The last step is to close the connection and resources that you have used to avoid memory leaks and database errors. You should close the ResultSet, Statement or PreparedStatement, and Connection objects in the reverse order of their creation. You can use the close() method of each object to close it. For example:
rs.close(); stmt.close(); conn.close();
With X DevAPI
To use MySQL Connector/J with X DevAPI, you need to follow these steps:
Create a Session object using SessionFactory
The first step is to create a Session object using the SessionFactory class. A Session object represents a logical connection to a MySQL server that supports X Protocol. X Protocol is a new protocol that enables communication between MySQL clients and servers using JSON messages.
To create a Session object, you can use the getSession() method of the SessionFactory class. The getSession() method takes a connection URL as a string argument and returns a Session object that represents a connection to a MySQL server. The connection URL has the following format:
xdevapi://user:password@host:port/database?properties
where user is the user name, password is the password, host is the hostname or IP address of the MySQL server, port is the port number of the MySQL server (default is 33060), database is the name of the database to connect to, and properties are optional parameters that specify various connection settings such as SSL mode, connection timeout, etc.
For example, if you want to connect to a database named test on a local MySQL server with user name root and password root123, you can use the following connection URL:
xdevapi://root:root123@localhost:33060/test
You can pass this connection URL as a string argument to the SessionFactory.getSession() method and assign the returned Session object to a variable. For example:
Session session = SessionFactory.getSession("xdevapi://root:root123@localhost:33060/test");
Perform CRUD operations using Collection or Table objects
After creating a Session object, you can use it to perform CRUD operations on the database using either Collection or Table objects. A Collection object represents a schemaless collection of JSON documents, while a Table object represents a relational table of rows and columns.
To obtain a Collection object, you can use the getCollection() method of the Session object. You need to pass the name of the collection as a string argument to the getCollection() method. If the collection does not exist, you can use the createCollection() method instead, which takes the name of the collection and an optional boolean argument that indicates whether to reuse an existing collection or not. For example, if you want to obtain or create a collection named users, you can use the following code:
Collection users = session.getCollection("users"); // or Collection users = session.createCollection("users", true);
To obtain a Table object, you can use the getTable() method of the Session object. You need to pass the name of the table as a string argument to the getTable() method. The table must exist in the database. For example, if you want to obtain a table named users, you can use the following code:
Table users = session.getTable("users");
To perform CRUD operations on a Collection or Table object, you can use various methods that return fluent interfaces for building and executing statements. For example, you can use the following methods:
add() - to insert one or more documents or rows into a collection or table
find() - to query one or more documents or rows from a collection or table
modify() - to update one or more documents or rows in a collection or table
remove() - to delete one or more documents or rows from a collection or table
For example, if you want to insert a document into the users collection, you can use the following code:
users.add("\"name\": \"Alice\", \"email\": \"alice@example.com\", \"age\": 25").execute();
If you want to query all documents from the users collection, you can use the following code:
DocResult result = users.find().execute();
If you want to update the age of all documents in the users collection that have the name Alice, you can use the following code:
users.modify("name = 'Alice'").set("age", 26).execute();
If you want to delete all documents from the users collection that have the age greater than 30, you can use the following code:
users.remove("age > 30").execute();
Use DocResult or RowResult to access the results
After executing a query on a Collection or Table object, you can use either DocResult or RowResult objects to access and process the results. A DocResult object represents a result set of JSON documents, while a RowResult object represents a result set of relational rows.
You can use various methods of DocResult or RowResult objects to move through and get the values of the documents or rows. For example, you can use the following methods:
next() - to move to the next document or row in the result set. The next() method returns true if there is a next document or row and false if there are no more documents or rows.
hasNext() - to check if there is a next document or row in the result set without moving to it. The hasNext() method returns true if there is a next document or row and false otherwise.
fetchOne() - to get the current document or row as a DbDoc or Row object, respectively. A DbDoc object represents a JSON document, while a Row object represents a relational row.
fetchAll() - to get all the documents or rows in the result set as a list of DbDoc or Row objects, respectively.
For example, if you want to iterate over all the documents in the DocResult object and print their names and ages, you can use the following code:
while (result.hasNext()) DbDoc doc = result.fetchOne(); String name = doc.getString("name"); int age = doc.getInt("age"); System.out.println(name + " is " + age + " years old.");
Close the session and resources
The last step is to close the session and resources that you have used to avoid memory leaks and database errors. You should close the DocResult, RowResult, Collection, Table, and Session objects in the reverse order of their creation. You can use the close() method of each object to close it. For example:
result.close(); users.close(); session.close();
Benefits of MySQL Connector/J
Using MySQL Connector/J has many benefits for Java developers who want to work with MySQL databases. Some of these benefits are:
Reduced connection creation time
MySQL Connector/J uses a caching mechanism that reduces the time required to create new connections to MySQL servers. This improves the performance and scalability of your Java applications.
Simplified programming model
MySQL Connector/J provides a simplified and consistent programming model for both JDBC and X DevAPI interfaces. You can use the same connection URL, Session object, and CRUD methods for both interfaces, making it easier to switch between them or use them together.
Controlled resource usage
MySQL Connector/J allows you to control the resource usage of your Java applications by providing various configuration options and properties. For example, you can set the maximum number of connections, statements, or results that can be cached or reused by MySQL Connector/J. You can also enable or disable features such as compression, SSL, logging, etc.
Support for connection pooling and multi-host connections
MySQL Connector/J supports connection pooling and multi-host connections, which are features that enhance the reliability and availability of your Java applications. Connection pooling allows you to reuse existing connections instead of creating new ones every time, reducing the overhead and latency of connecting to MySQL servers. Multi-host connections allow you to connect to multiple MySQL servers in a cluster or a replication setup, providing load balancing and failover capabilities.
Conclusion
In this article, you learned how to download and use MySQL Connector/J, which is a Java library that allows you to connect to MySQL databases and perform various operations using JDBC and X DevAPI interfaces. You also learned about the benefits of using MySQL Connector/J for your Java applications.
FAQs
What is the latest version of MySQL Connector/J?
The latest version of MySQL Connector/J is 8.0.26, which was released on July 20, 2021.
How do I check the version of MySQL Connector/J that I am using?
You can check the version of MySQL Connector/J that you are using by calling the getDriverVersion() method of the DatabaseMetaData object. The DatabaseMetaData object can be obtained by calling the getMetaData() method of the Connection object. For example:
DatabaseMetaData dbmd = conn.getMetaData(); String version = dbmd.getDriverVersion(); System.out.println(version);
How do I update MySQL Connector/J?
To update MySQL Connector/J, you need to download the latest version of MySQL Connector/J from , extract the jar file from the downloaded archive, copy it to a suitable location on your system, and add it to your classpath of your Java application. You may also need to restart your Java application or your IDE to apply the changes.
How do I uninstall MySQL Connector/J?
To uninstall MySQL Connector/J, you need to remove the jar file from the location where you copied it, and remove it from your classpath of your Java application. You may also need to restart your Java application or your IDE to apply the changes.
Where can I find more information and documentation about MySQL Connector/J?
You can find more information and documentation about MySQL Connector/J at .
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