java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver found for 'jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mysql [Solution]

This error comes when you are trying to connect to MySQL database from Java program using JDBC but either the JDBC driver for MySQL is not available in the classpath or it is not registered prior to calling the DriverManager.getConnection() method. In order to get the connection to the database, you must first register the driver using Class.forName() method. You should call this method with the correct the name of the JDBC driver "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" and this will both load and register the driver with JDBC. The type 4 JDBC driver for MySQL is bundled into MySQL connector JAR e.g. mysql-connector-java-5.1.18-bin.jar depending upon which version of MySQL database you are connecting. Make sure this JAR is available in classpath before running your Java program, otherwise Class.forName() will not be able to find and load the class and throw java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver, another dreaded JDBC error, which we have seen in the earlier post.

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