Announcing the JDBC Driver 6.0 for SQL Server

We are pleased to announce the release of the Microsoft JDBC Driver 6.0 for SQL Server! Like the preview drivers, it brings support for:

  • Always Encrypted
  • Azure Active Directory authentication
  • Table-Valued Parameters
  • Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)
  • Extended support for Parameterized Queries
  • Transparent connections to AlwaysOn Availability Groups

The JDBC Driver 6.0 for SQL Server is fully compliant with JDBC specifications 4.1 and 4.2. The jars contained in the 6.0 package are named according to their compliance with the JDBC API version. For example, the sqljdbc42.jar file from the 6.0 package is JDBC API 4.2 compliant. Similarly, the sqljdbc41.jar file is compliant with JDBC API 4.1.

To ensure you have the right sqljdbc42.jar or sqljdbc41.jar, run the following lines of code. If the output is "Driver version: 6.0.7507.100", you have the JDBC Driver 6.0 package.
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:sqlserver://<server>;user=<user>;password=<password>;"); System.out.println("Driver version: " + conn.getMetaData().getDriverVersion());

Read the full release announcement here.

Learn how to pick which jar file is right for you here and read more documentation here.

Andrea Lam (andrela@microsoft.com)