Program to list JDBC drivers

Question

Hi everyone,
I use the following code to list JDBC drivers on my system.
private static void listDrivers() {
//Get all the JDBC drivers
Enumeration<Driver> driverList = DriverManager.getDrivers();
//print out all the drivers using a loop
while (driverList.hasMoreElements()) {
Driver jdbcDriver = (Driver)driverList.nextElement();
System.out.println("JDBC Driver: " + jdbcDriver);
It lists JDBC-ODBC bridge:
JDBC Driver: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver@19efb05
After I installed Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver. I ran the above program again. Expecting it would return this new driver as well. But, the output is still the same.
Why??? What did I do wrong? How do I get the program to list all the JDBC drivers on my system?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Eric

Answer 1

jwenting wrote:
Where you went wrong was in assuming that just having a jar somewhere on your computer will automatically put it on the classpath of your little application.
Or maybe you went wrong in assuming that jdbc magically detects any jar anywhere on your computer that has a driver in it without being told where to look for that jar.Well, there's that. But, there is also the fact,OP, that the API docs says that the method getDrivers returns all currently loaded Drivers. In other words, OP, even if the jar is on your Classpath, getDrivers won't list it until you've done Class.forName("DriverClass") or DriverManager.registerDriver("DriverClass").
IOW, OP, read the API docs.
Edit: And, no, there is no Class/method (AFAIK) that will search your classpath for any/all possible Driver classes.