The WwdEmbedded program

This section describes the program, highlighting details specific to accessing a Derby database from a JDBC program.

Most of the code related to the database activities performed is included in this section, but you might find it helpful to open the program file and follow along in a text viewer or editor. The SECTION NAMES referred to in this section can be found in the comments within the program code and serve as cross-reference points between this section and the Java program. The program uses methods from the WwdUtils class. The utility class code is not described here but is available for review in the file

Initialize the program

INITIALIZATION SECTION: The initial lines of code identify the Java packages used in the program, then set up the Java class WwdEmbedded and the main method signature. Refer to a Java programming guide for information on these program constructs.

import java.sql.*;

public class WwdEmbedded   
    public static void main(String[] args)

Define key variables and objects

DEFINE VARIABLES SECTION: The initial lines of the main method define the variables and objects used in the program. This example uses variables to store the information needed to connect to the Derby database. The use of variables for this information makes it easy to adapt the program to other configurations and other databases.

Stores the name of the Derby embedded driver.
Stores the name of the database.
Stores the Derby connection URL that is used to access the database.
Stores the SQL CREATE statement for the WISH_LIST table.
String driver = "org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver";
String dbName="jdbcDemoDB";
String connectionURL = "jdbc:derby:" + dbName + ";create=true";
String createString = "CREATE TABLE WISH_LIST  "

Start the Derby engine

LOAD DRIVER SECTION: Loading the Derby embedded JDBC driver starts the Derby database engine. The try and catch block (the Java error-handling construct) catches the exceptions that may occur. A problem here is usually due to an incorrect classpath setting.

String driver = "org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver";
try {
} catch(java.lang.ClassNotFoundException e) {

Boot the database

BOOT DATABASE SECTION: The DriverManager class loads the database using the Derby connection URL stored in the variable connectionURL. This URL includes the parameter ;create=true so that the database will be created if it does not already exist. The primary try and catch block begins here. This construct handles errors for the database access code.

try {
    conn = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionURL);
    ...  <most of the program code is contained here>
}  catch (Throwable e)  {   

Set up program to execute SQL

INITIAL SQL SECTION: The program initializes the objects needed to perform subsequent SQL operations and checks to see if the required data table exists.

The statement object s is initialized. If the utility method WwdUtils.wwdChk4Table does not find the WISH_LIST table, the statement object's execute method creates the table by executing the SQL stored in the variable createString.

s = conn.createStatement();
if (! WwdUtils.wwdChk4Table(conn))
   System.out.println (" . . . . creating table WISH_LIST");

The INSERT statement used to add data to the table is bound to the prepared statement object psInsert. The prepared statement uses the question mark parameter ? to represent the data that will be inserted by the user. The program sets the actual value to be inserted later on, before executing the SQL. This is the most efficient way to execute SQL statements that will be used multiple times.

psInsert = conn.prepareStatement
   ("insert into WISH_LIST(WISH_ITEM) values (?)");

Interact with the database

ADD / DISPLAY RECORD SECTION: This section uses the utility method WwdUtils.getWishItem to gather information from the user. It then uses the objects set up previously to insert the data into the WISH_LIST table and then display all records. A standard do loop causes the program to repeat this series of steps until the user types exit. The data-related activities performed in this section are as follows:

Shut down the database

DATABASE SHUTDOWN SECTION: If an application starts the Derby engine, the application should shut down all databases before exiting. The attribute ;shutdown=true in the Derby connection URL performs the shutdown. When the Derby engine is shutdown, all booted databases will automatically shut down. The shutdown process cleans up records in the transaction log to ensure a faster startup the next time the database is booted.

Tip: You can shut down individual databases without shutting down the engine by including the database name in the connection URL.

"This section verifies that the embedded driver is being used, then issues the shutdown command and catches the shutdown exception to confirm that the Derby engine shut down cleanly. The shutdown status is displayed before the program exits.

if (driver.equals("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver")) {
   boolean gotSQLExc = false;
   try {
   } catch (SQLException se)  {
      if ( se.getSQLState().equals("XJ015") ) {
         gotSQLExc = true;
   if (!gotSQLExc) {
      System.out.println("Database did not shut down normally");
   }  else  {
      System.out.println("Database shut down normally");
Important: The XJ015 error (successful shutdown of the Derby engine) and the 08006 error (successful shutdown of a single database) are the only exceptions thrown by Derby that might indicate that an operation succeeded. All other exceptions indicate that an operation failed. You should check the log file to be certain.

The errorPrint and SQLExceptionPrint methods

DERBY EXCEPTION REPORTING CLASSES: The two methods at the end of the file, errorPrint and SQLExceptionPrint, are generic exception-reporting methods that can be used with any JDBC program. This type of exception handling is required because often multiple exceptions (SQLException) are chained together and then thrown. A while loop is used to report on each error in the chain. The program starts this process by calling the errorPrint method from the catch block of the code that accesses the database.

//  Beginning of the primary catch block: uses errorPrint method
}  catch (Throwable e)  {   
   /*    Catch all exceptions and pass them to 
   **    the exception reporting method   */ 
   System.out.println(" . . . exception thrown:");

The errorPrint method prints a stack trace for all exceptions except a SQLException. Each SQLException is passed to the SQLExceptionPrint method.

static void errorPrint(Throwable e) {
   if (e instanceof SQLException) 
   else {
      System.out.println("A non SQL error occured.");
}  // END errorPrint 

The SQLExceptionPrint method iterates through each of the exceptions on the stack. For each error, the method displays the codes, message, and stacktrace.

//  Iterates through a stack of SQLExceptions 
static void SQLExceptionPrint(SQLException sqle) {
   while (sqle != null) {
      System.out.println("\n---SQLException Caught---\n");
      System.out.println("SQLState:   " + (sqle).getSQLState());
      System.out.println("Severity: " + (sqle).getErrorCode());
      System.out.println("Message:  " + (sqle).getMessage()); 
      sqle = sqle.getNextException();
}  //  END SQLExceptionPrint

To see the output produced by this method, type a wish-list item with more than 32 characters, such as I wish to see a Java program fail.