This book is essentially an ongoing lecture of increasing complexity. To cite one thread, it begins with clear but academic examples that involve discrete transactions (opening a connection, performing a query, and closing the connection). It then moves on to connection pooling and other JDBC-supported optimizations for the real world. A menagerie of specialized sections on such topics as security and persistence rely heavily on long code examples. A section on Swing programming seems kind of out of place, but it's short. In sum, this slim volume is a great introduction to JDBC for those who are looking to approach Java distributed applications by way of database work.

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Topics covered: The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) classes, with emphasis on how JDBC code fits into distributed applications (so-called enterprise applications) that use Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Remote Method Invocation (RMI). Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), serialization, persistence, security, and (especially) application design receive plenty of attention. Fully a quarter of this book is a reference (including statements of syntax and brief descriptions) to the JDBC Core API and the JDBC Optional Package classes.