# java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection method

A Java application using the JDBC API establishes a connection to a database by obtaining a Connection object. The standard way to obtain a Connection object is to call the method DriverManager.getConnection, which takes a String containing a database connection URL. A JDBC database connection URL (uniform resource locator) provides a way of identifying a database.

DriverManager.getConnection can take one argument besides a database connection URL, a Properties object. You can use the Properties object to set database connection URL attributes.

You can also supply strings representing user names and passwords. When they are supplied, Derby checks whether they are valid for the current system if user authentication is enabled. User names are passed to Derby as authorization identifiers, which are used to determine whether the user is authorized for access to the database and for determining the default schema. When the connection is established, if no user is supplied, Derby sets the default user to APP, which Derby uses to name the default schema. If a user is supplied, the default schema is the same as the user name.

- Derby database connection URL syntax
- Syntax of database connection URLs for applications with embedded databases
- Additional SQL syntax
- Attributes of the Derby database connection URL

Parent topic: JDBC reference
Related concepts
Core JDBC java.sql classes, interfaces, and methods
Related reference
java.sql.Driver interface
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 4.0-only features
JDBC escape syntax