JDBC is an API for the Java programming language that defines how a client may access a database. It provides methods for querying and updating data in a database. JDBC is oriented towards relational databases. JDBC was first introduced in the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, version 1.1 (J2SE), together with a reference implementation JDBC-to-ODBC bridge, enabling connections to any ODBC-accessible data source in the JVM host environment.