JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) provides APIs for Java programs to connect to databases. There are four types of JDBC drivers: Type 1 uses JDBC-ODBC bridge, Type 2 uses a native API, Type 3 is pure Java using a network protocol, and Type 4 is also pure Java using a native database protocol.
To connect to a database using JDBC, a program loads the appropriate JDBC driver, gets a connection, creates statements to execute SQL queries and updates, processes the result set, and closes resources. Prepared statements can be used for repetitive queries to improve performance over regular statements. Overall, JDBC allows Java applications to connect to databases in a standardized way