The simplest approach to creating a connection to a SQL Server database is to load the JDBC driver and call the getConnection method of the DriverManager class, as in the following:

Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
String connectionUrl = "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionUrl);

This technique will create a database connection using the first available driver in the list of drivers that can successfully connect with the given URL.

If you have to specify a particular driver in the list of drivers for DriverManager, you can create a database connection by using the connect method of the SQLServerDriver class, as in the following:

Driver d = (Driver) Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
String connectionUrl = "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;
Connection con = d.connect(connectionUrl, new Properties());

If you have to create a connection by using the SQLServerDataSource class, you can use various setter methods of the class before you call the getConnection method, as in the following:

SQLServerDataSource ds = new SQLServerDataSource();
ds.setUser("MyUserName");
ds.setPassword("*****");
ds.setServerName("localhost");
ds.setPortNumber(1433); 
ds.setDatabaseName("AdventureWorks");
Connection con = ds.getConnection();

If you have to make a database connection that targets a very specific data source, there are a number of approaches that you can take. Each approach depends on the properties that you set by using the connection URL.

To connect to the default instance on a remote server, use the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;integratedSecurity=true;

To connect to a specific port on a server, use the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer:1533;integratedSecurity=true;

To connect to a named instance on a server, use the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://209.196.43.19;instanceName=INSTANCE1;integratedSecurity=true;

To connect to a specific database on a server, use the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://172.31.255.255;database=AdventureWorks;integratedSecurity=true;

For more connection URL examples, see Building the Connection URL.

If you have to adjust for server load or network traffic, you can create a connection that has a specific login time-out value described in seconds, as in the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;loginTimeout=90;integratedSecurity=true;

If you have to use logging and profiling, you will have to identify your connection as originating from a specific application, as in the following:

String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://MyServer;applicationName=MYAPP.EXE;integratedSecurity=true;

You can explicitly close a database connection by calling the close method of the SQLServerConnection class, as in the following:

con.close();

This will release the database resources that the SQLServerConnection object is using, or return the connection to the connection pool in pooled scenarios.