Difference Between JDBC and ODBC

JDBC vs ODBC is the comparative concept for the system driver software. JDBC is known as Java Database Community is the application programming interface for java language that is used for external database communication from the program. Whereas ODBC is known as Open Database Connectivity is the industry-standard application programming interface for various programming languages and applications for database connectivity and retrieval. JDBC supports two or more layer architecture through the JDBC API and JDBC driver API. Whereas, ODBC support driver management, ODBC API and Data source that is created as configuration known as Data Source Name (DSN).Most of the Database vendors like Oracle , Microsoft SQL server provides the JDBC and ODBC driver software for the Database connectivity from the operating system.

It can have a direct impact on the below-mentioned applications.

Java Servlets
Java Applets
Java-based Applications
Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs)
Java Server Pages (JSPs)

The basic JDBC architecture supports both two-tier and three tire layer processing DB models but mainly it consists of two layers of architecture.

JDBC API: It is mainly used for the communication between application and the related JDBC manager connection
JDBC Driver API: It is mainly used for the communication between JDBC driver and the related JDBC manager connection

JDBC API also consists of the below mentioned five interphases.

Driver: It mainly deals with the communication between different database servers
Connection: It mainly deals with the communication between different database using connection objects
Driver Manager: It is mainly used to manage a different set of database drivers
SQL Exception: It mainly deals with the error handling across different databases
ResultSet: It is mainly to store and retrieve the data results after the successful SQL query execution across different databases.

Head To Head Comparison Between JDBC and ODBC (Infographics)

Below is the top 8 difference between JDBC vs ODBC

Key Differences Between JDBC vs ODBC

Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference :

Java Database Community (JDBC) is basically an application programming interphase for the Java programming language to determine the client’s database access features whereas Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is basically a standard application programming interphase for communicating and accessing database management systems.
Being implemented on Java, JDBC can only be enhanced and implemented on java languages whereas, In case of ODBC, it can be implemented for any languages viz. C, C++, Java etc.
JDBC is object-oriented whereas ODBC is procedural.
In case of JDBC, it is mainly used by Apache Tomcat web server and mainly implemented on Linux based web server. But it also runs on JBoss and IBM application servers. So if the execution is processed in the Linux based servers than JDBC is more preferable than ODBC. In the case of ODBC, it is mainly based on the Microsoft IIS server and is implemented on windows based systems.
JDBC mainly works with respect to the Java Security Model whereas ODBC is mainly based and implemented on the Windows NT Security Architecture Model.
JDBC is mainly based on Java and thus it becomes platform-independent. Hence, it can work on any platforms irrespective of MS Windows and Linux based platforms. But this is not the case with ODBC and it can only work on the Microsoft Windows platforms.
The basic JDBC architecture supports both two-tier and three tire layer processing DB models but mainly it consists of two layers of architecture viz. JDBC API and JDBC Driver API whereas The ODBC architecture mainly consist of four components viz. The driver, Driver Manager, API, and Data Source.

JDBC vs ODBC Comparison Table

Below is the topmost comparison between JDBC vs ODBC

The Basis Of comparison	JDBC	ODBC
Definition	Java Database Community (JDBC) is basically an application programming interphase for the Java programming language to determine the client’s database access features	Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is basically a standard application programming interphase for communicating and accessing database management systems
Architecture	The basic JDBC architecture supports both two-tier and three tire layer processing DB models but mainly it consists of two layers of architecture viz. JDBC API and JDBC Driver API	The ODBC architecture mainly consists of four components viz. The driver, Driver Manager, API, and Data Source
Simplicity	In case of JDBC, coding is the initial step of programming complex queries and it is easier than programming	In the case of ODBC, it handles different complex situations and queries to produce the proper machine level outputs. So, it is basically an advanced version of coding and other different approaches. Thus, it is much more complex than JDBC
Language dependency	Being implemented on Java, JDBC can only be enhanced and implemented on java languages	In the case of ODBC, it can be implemented for any languages viz. C, C++, Java etc.
Platform dependency	In the case of JDBC, it can be executed on any platforms	In the case of ODBC, it can be executed only in windows based platforms
Mode of Operation	In the case of JDBC, it mainly runs on the Java Programming language and can be compiled directly at the runtime	In the case of ODBC, it is mainly implemented on Visual Basic language and thus the code needs to be interpreted and then it can be executed
Security	In the case of JDBC, since users normally don’t have access to the core system settings, hence the violations and security gaps can be corrected quickly	In the case of ODBC, being more user interactive server it is prone to user errors. Thus, from the security perspective, JDBC would be a better choice
Support	There is also a lot of community support for JDBC and its users.	Although it is costly, they provide a larger range of community and paid support. Normally all the ODBC versions use to provide long-term customer support

Conclusion

After comparing JDBC vs ODBC over a range of factors, it can be concluded that these are the two important application programming interphase which helps the application to communicate between client side and server side across different databases, but at the same point of time, each one has its own pros and cons. So, before choosing any one of them, developers should learn and analyze different aspects of both JDBC vs ODBC. Thus, based on the type of project need, time of work and on all other different discussed aspects, any of these two should be selected to reach the desired goal.

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