# JDBC 4.0-only features

JDBC 4.0 adds some functionality to the core API. This section documents the features supported by Derby.

Note: These features are present only in a JDK 1.6 or higher environment.

These features are:

- DataSources. To support the JDBC 4.0 ease of development, Derby introduces new implementations of `javax.sql.DataSource`. See javax.sql.DataSource interface: JDBC 4.0 features.
- Autoloading of JDBC drivers. In earlier versions of JDBC, applications had to manually register drivers before requesting Connections. With JDBC 4.0, applications no longer need to issue a Class.forName() on the driver name; instead, the DriverManager will find an appropriate JDBC driver when the application requests a Connection.
- SQLExceptions. JDBC 4.0 introduces refined subclasses of SQLException. See Refined subclasses of SQLException.
- Wrappers. JDBC 4.0 introduces the concept of wrapped JDBC objects. This is a formal mechanism by which application servers can look for vendor-specific extensions inside standard JDBC objects like Connections, Statements, and ResultSets. For Derby, this is a vacuous exercise because Derby does not expose any of these extensions.
- Statement events. With JDBC 4.0, Connection pools can listen for Statement closing and Statement error events. New methods were added to javax.sql.PooledConnection: addStatementEventListener and removeStatementEventListener.
- Streaming APIs. JDBC 4.0 adds new overloads of the streaming methods in CallableStatement, PreparedStatement, and ResultSet. These are the setXXX and updateXXX methods which take java.io.InputStream and java.io.Reader arguments. The new overloads allow you to omit the length arguments or to specify long lengths.
- New methods. New methods were added to the following interfaces: `javax.sql.Connection`, `javax.sql.DatabaseMetaData`, and `javax.sql.Statement`. See java.sql.Connection interface: JDBC 4.0 features, java.sql.DatabaseMetaData interface: JDBC 4.0 features, java.sql.Statement interface: JDBC 4.0 features.

- Refined subclasses of SQLException
- java.sql.Connection interface: JDBC 4.0 features
- java.sql.DatabaseMetaData interface: JDBC 4.0 features
- java.sql.Statement interface: JDBC 4.0 features
- javax.sql.DataSource interface: JDBC 4.0 features

Parent topic: JDBC reference
Related concepts
Core JDBC java.sql classes, interfaces, and methods
Related reference
java.sql.Driver interface
java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection method
java.sql.Connection interface
java.sql.DatabaseMetaData interface
java.sql.Statement interface
java.sql.CallableStatement interface
java.sql.SQLException class
java.sql.PreparedStatement interface
java.sql.ResultSet interface
java.sql.ResultSetMetaData interface
java.sql.SQLWarning class
java.sql.SQLXML interface
Mapping of java.sql.Types to SQL types
JDBC 2.0 features
java.sql.BatchUpdateException class
JDBC Package for Connected Device Configuration/Foundation Profile (JSR169)
JDBC 3.0 features
JDBC escape syntax