With the advent of the Internet and the ever increasing advancement in technology, programs and languages are "blending" in order to further open access to various sites, databases and programs. The usage of SQL in Java programs allows Java programs to pull information from relational databases through the Internet. .
SQL or Structured Query Language and Java are two different programs that serve different purposes. SQL is commonly known as a database language while Java is a programming language. IBM created SQL in the 1970s to provide basic language constructs for databases (SQL par.1). The language is ideal in that it supports distributed databases and is often included with database programs such as Oracle, Access and DB2. The language can be used to query, create and management databases. Java is an object-oriented language created by Sun Microsystems in 1990. The program is also ideal in that it can be used on various platforms, "contains language facilities and libraries for networking and is designed to execute code from remote sources" (Java par. 2). .
Java programs can now utilized SQL that will enable Java to access databases and to execute SQL statements through the Internet with the usage of JDBC or Java Database Connectivity and SQLJ. Both were developed to enable Java to use SQL. JDBC is an Application Programming Interface or an API. It uses dynamic SQL which means that SQL statements can be changed. SQLJ uses static SQL where the SQL statement is embedded directly to the Java program. Both JDBC and SQLJ have their advantages and disadvantages. For example JDBC source program uses a lot of space and overhead, while SQLJ since it is embedded, is smaller (JDBC par. 5). Another comparison is JDBC is compiled at run-time while SQLJ needs to be precompiled. Though the two have been compared as to which has the greater advantage over the other, in actuality JDBC and SQLJ can be used in the same program (Mullins par.