How to executes an SQL SELECT statement in a JSP?

The <sql:query> tag executes an SQL SELECT statement and saves the result in a scoped variable.
The <sql:query> tag has the following attributes −
To start with the basic concept, let us create an Employees table in the TEST database and create few records in that table as follows −
Follow these steps to create the Employees table −
Open a Command Prompt and change to the installation directory as follows −
C:\>
C:\>cd Program Files\MySQL\bin
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>
Login to the database as follows
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>mysql -u root -p
Enter password: ********
mysql>
Create the Employee table in the TEST database as follows − −
mysql> use TEST;
   mysql> create table Employees (
      id int not null,
      age int not null,
      first varchar (255),
      last varchar (255)
   );
   Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
mysql>
We will now create few records in the Employee table as follows −
mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (100, 18, 'Zara', 'Ali');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (101, 25, 'Mahnaz', 'Fatma');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (102, 30, 'Zaid', 'Khan');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (103, 28, 'Sumit', 'Mittal');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql>
Let us now create a JSP which will make use of <sql:query> to execute an SQL SELECT statement as follows −
<%@ page import = "java.io.*,java.util.*,java.sql.*"%>
<%@ page import = "javax.servlet.http.*,javax.servlet.*" %>
<%@ taglib uri = "http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix = "c"%>
<%@ taglib uri = "http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix = "sql"%>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>JSTL sql:query Tag</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      <sql:setDataSource var = "snapshot" driver = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
         url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/TEST"
         user = "root" password = "pass123"/>
         <sql:query dataSource = "${snapshot}" var = "result">
         SELECT * from Employees;
      </sql:query>
      <table border = "1" width = "100%">
         <tr>
            <th>Emp ID</th>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
            <th>Age</th>
         </tr>
         <c:forEach var = "row" items = "${result.rows}">
            <tr>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.id}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.first}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.last}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.age}"/></td>
            </tr>
         </c:forEach>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>
Access the above JSP, which should display the following result −
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Emp ID      | First Name     | Last Name       | Age             |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 100         | Zara           | Ali             | 18              |
| 101         | Mahnaz         | Fatma           | 25              |
| 102         | Zaid           | Khan            | 30              |
| 103         | Sumit          | Mittal          | 28              |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+