JSTL vs Scriptlets in Database Operations
When working with databases in JSP, developers can either use Scriptlets (Java code
directly) or JSTL (JSP Standard Tag Library). Below is a comparison of both approaches.
1. Scriptlet Style (Traditional JDBC in JSP)
<%@ page import="java.sql.*" %>
<html>
<body>
<%
Connection conn = null;
Statement stmt = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try {
Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver");
conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/testdb","root","");
stmt = conn.createStatement();
rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT id, name FROM students");
while(rs.next()){
out.println("<p>ID: " + rs.getInt("id") + " - Name: " + rs.getString("name") + "</p>");
}
} catch(Exception e){
out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
} finally {
if(rs!=null) rs.close();
if(stmt!=null) stmt.close();
if(conn!=null) conn.close();
}
%>
</body>
</html>
2. JSTL Style (Using <sql:query>)
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
<html>
<body>
<sql:setDataSource var="db" driver="com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver"
url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/testdb"
user="root" password=""/>
<sql:query dataSource="${db}" var="result">
SELECT id, name FROM students;
</sql:query>
<table border="1">
<tr><th>ID</th><th>Name</th></tr>
<c:forEach var="row" items="${result.rows}">
<tr>
<td>${row.id}</td>
<td>${row.name}</td>
</tr>
</c:forEach>
</table>
</body>
</html>
3. Side-by-Side Comparison
Feature Scriptlet (JDBC in JSP) JSTL (sql tag)
Code Style Java code in JSP using JDBC XML-like tags
Complexity Long try-catch, manual Simple and clean
connection handling
Readability Hard for beginners Easy to understand
Best Use Case Good for learning raw JDBC Good for demos/teaching
Enterprise Practice ❌ Not recommended ✅ Cleaner, but still DAO
preferred
4. Teaching Tip for Students
- Start with Scriptlet JDBC to show how messy it looks.
- Then show JSTL sql:query to demonstrate cleaner code.
- Finally, explain that in real enterprise projects, database logic should go into Servlets/DAO
layer, not directly in JSP.
