/*
* Main.java
*
* Created on November 27, 2008, 3:56 PM
*
*/

package sqlserversample;

import java.sql.*;
import com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.*;

/**
*
* @author Timothy M. Rodriguez
*/

public class Main {

/* jdbc driver name and database url
* ms sql uses port 1433
* replace "mysqlserver" with the ip and host of your database
* if connecting from a *nix box, don't forget to use the FQDN and not just the NetBIOS host
* if not, the ip is a safe bet
*/
private static final String DATABASE_URL = "jdbc:sqlserver://mysqlserver:1433";
private static final String DRIVER = "com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.sqlserverdriver";

//used to connect to the database
private static Connection connection = null;
//used to execute queries on the database
private static Statement statement = null;
//this object is used to store your result sets
private static ResultSet resultSet = null;
//this object is used to stored data about the table
private static ResultSetMetaData metaData = null;

/** Creates a new instance of Main */
public Main() {
//default constructor
}

/**
* @param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {

try {
// load the driver class

//this should work, but doesn't, not sure why, let me know in the comments if you do
// Class.forName(DRIVER);
// instead i created it this way
SQLServerDriver sqlServerDriver = new SQLServerDriver();
/*
* I manually created a SQLServerDriver instance, this is due to
* complications with the classpath establish connection to db
*/
DriverManager.registerDriver(sqlServerDriver);
connection = DriverManager.getConnection(DATABASE_URL,
"user", "password");

// create the statement for querying
statement = connection.createStatement();

//put your query string in the executeQuery method argument
resultSet = statement.executeQuery("SELECT TOP 10 * FROM Table");
metaData = resultSet.getMetaData();
//I didn't use the metadata object, but showed you how to create it
//the metaData object can be used to get column names and indices, column types, etc.

while(resultSet.next()) {
//the get object method is useful if you don't want to bother with the column type
System.out.println(resultSet.getObject(3).toString());
}

} catch (SQLException sqlException) {
//couldn't connect to the db or execute a query
sqlException.printStackTrace();
/* in a real webapp, you don't want to be printing stack traces
* instead print a nice error page that doesn't include internal information
*  For example, "oops, it blew up"
*/
}
}
}

That’s it, I hope that helps!