JDBC driver overview

Use JDBC to interact with databases in a standard manner.

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is a Java standard API that allows applications to interact with databases in a standard manner. ThoughtSpot has JDBC support through a JDBC driver that we provide.

Connector type

There are different types of JDBC connectors. Driver types categorize the technology used to connect to the database. The ThoughtSpot JDBC drive is a type 4 connector. It uses Java to implement a networking protocol for communicating with ThoughtSpot.

This driver is Java driver. There is no client installation or configuration.

When to use JDBC

JDBC can be used whenever you want to connect to ThoughtSpot to insert data programmatically from a Java program or application. You should begin by using the ThoughtSpot Loader for initial data loads and then use JDBC for incremental loads. This is because the ThoughtSpot Loader is generally faster than JDBC. Information on using the ThoughtSpot Loader is available in the ThoughtSpot Administrator Guide.

Version compatibility

To ensure compatibility, always use the JDBC driver with the same version number as the ThoughtSpot instance to which you are connecting.

Performance considerations

These are some general recommendations for maximizing the performance of JDBC:

  • Insert in batches rather than doing single inserts at a time using the PreparedStatement::addBatch() and PreparedStatement::executeBatch commands.

  • If you need to upload a lot of data, consider running multiple connections with batch inserts in parallel.

The ETL tool must add a data transformation step if the source column data type does not exactly match the target’s, ThoughtSpot’s, column data type. The driver does not do any implicit conversions.