Setting Up Your Apache Derby Database

Getting Started With Apache Derby

Apache Derby is an open source, relational database management system that is written entirely in Java. It is a lightweight, powerful, and flexible system that can easily be embedded into Java applications.

Derby is perfect for small to medium-sized databases, and it is especially suited for embedded databases as it doesn't have any external dependencies like a server. This makes it ideal for applications like mobile apps, PDAs, and embedded devices.

If you're new to Apache Derby, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Install Apache Derby

The first step is to install Derby on your system. You can download the binary distribution from Apache's website and extract it to the location you want it to run from. Once you have the binaries extracted, it's time to create the database.

2. Create the Database

Creating the database is easy and straightforward. All you need to do is use the provided Java commands from the command line or shell to create the database. The syntax for creating a database is as follows:

java -jar [derby_installation_directory]/bin/ij.jar [derby_database_name]

Once the database is created, you should see a “Connected to [database_name]” message that indicates that the database has been successfully created.

3. Add Tables

Once the database is created, you can start adding tables to it. Apache Derby supports most of the SQL standards and you can use the standard SQL CREATE TABLE syntax to create new tables. This syntax is fairly simple and looks like this:

CREATE TABLE [table-name] (
    column-name-1 data-type-1,
    column-name-2 data-type-2,
    ...
);

In the above statement, the column-name-1 and column-name-2 represent the name of the columns you want to add to the table, while the data-type-1 and data-type-2 represent the data type of those columns.

4. Insert Data

After you have created the tables, you can start inserting data into them. To do this, you will use the SQL INSERT statement, which looks like this:

INSERT INTO [table-name] VALUES (value-1, value-2, ...);

In the above statement, the table-name represents the name of the table you want to insert data into, and the value-1, value-2, etc. represent the values you want to insert into the table.

5. Run Queries

Once you have inserted data into the tables, you can start querying the data using the SQL SELECT statement. This statement looks something like this:

SELECT [column-name-1], [column-name-2], ... 
FROM [table-name] 
WHERE [condition];

In the above statement, the column-name-1 and column-name-2 represent the names of the columns you want to select, while the condition represents a search condition you want to apply to the query.

Conclusion

These are the basics of getting started with Apache Derby. As you can see, it is a powerful, flexible, and lightweight system that is perfect for small to medium-sized databases. With Derby, you don't even need to install a server as it can easily be embedded into your application.