12 Variants and Extensions

As far as possible we would like a standard JDBC API that works in a uniform way with different databases. However it is unavoidable that different databases support different SQL features and provide different semantics for some operations.

12.1 Permitted variants

The methods in java.sql.Connection, java.sql.Statement, java.sql.PreparedStatement, java.sql.CallableStatement, and java.sql.Resultset should all be supported for all JDBC drivers. For databases which don't support OUT parameters with stored procedures, the various registerOutParameter and getXXX methods of CallableStatement may raise SQLException.

The actual SQL that may be used varies somewhat between databases. For example, different databases provide different support for outer joins. The java.sql.DatabaseMetaData interface provides a number of methods that can be used to determine exactly which SQL features are supported by a particular database. Similarly, the syntax for a number of SQL features may vary between databases and can also be discovered from java.sql.DatabaseMetaData. However, in order to pass JDBC conformance tests a driver must support at least ANSI SQL-2 Entry Level syntax and semantics plus support for the SQL extensions listed in Section 11.

Finally, some fundamental properties, such as transaction isolation levels, vary between databases. The default properties of the current database and the range of properties it supports can also be obtained from DatabaseMetaData.

12.2 Vendor-specific extensions

JDBC provides a uniform API that is intended to work across all databases. However, database vendors may wish to expose additional functionality that is supported by their databases.

Database vendors may add additional functionality by adding new subtypes of existing JDBC types that provide additional methods. Thus the Foobah corporation might define a new Java type foobah.sql.FooBahStatement that inherits from the standard java.sql.Statement type but adds some new functionality.

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