Sure, here are the steps to connect a Java application with a MySQL database. 1. Install and Import MySQL Connector/J: First, you need a JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) driver to establish a connection to your MySQL database. MySQL Connector/J is the official JDBC driver for MySQL. You can download it from the MySQL official website or add the dependency in your Maven or Gradle file. Maven dependency: ``` mysql mysql-connector-java 8.0.19 ``` Gradle dependency: ``` implementation 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:8.0.19' ``` 2. Load the Driver: Once you've included the MySQL connector in your project, you'll want to load it in your code. You do this with Class.forName() like so: ``` Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver"); ``` 3. Establish a Connection: Initiate a connection using DriverManager.getConnection() with your database URL, username, and password. ``` Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( "jdbc:mysql://localhost/mydatabase", "username", "password"); ``` Replace "localhost/mydatabase", "username", and "password" with your actual database details. 4. Execute queries: Now you can create a Statement object and execute SQL queries. ``` Statement st = conn.createStatement(); ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM myTable"); ``` 5. Process the results: You can then process the ResultSet returned by the query. ``` while (rs.next()){ System.out.println(rs.getString("ColumnName")); } ``` 6. Handling exceptions: All these steps should be done in a try-catch block to appropriately handle SQL and ClassNotFound Exceptions. 7. Closing connection: Once done, it's important to close the connection to free up resources. ``` conn.close(); ``` Here's a complete example for better clarity: ```Java import java.sql.*; public class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { try { // Step 1 & 2: Load the Driver Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver"); // Step 3: Establish a Connection Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( "jdbc:mysql://localhost/mydatabase", "username", "password"); //Step 4: Execute queries Statement st = conn.createStatement(); ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM myTable"); // Step 5: Process Results while (rs.next()){ System.out.println(rs.getString("ColumnName")); } // Step 6: Close Connection conn.close(); } catch(Exception e) { System.out.println(e); } } } ``` That's it! These are the basic steps to connecting to a MySQL database from a Java application using JDBC. From here, consider looking into PreparedStatement for parameterized queries and mitigating SQL injection attacks. Also, consider using a pool of connections instead of creating a new connection for every query for optimising resource usage.