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What is the difference between a Statement and a PreparedStatement?

Created May 4, 2012

Lennart Jorelid

Short answer:

  1. The PreparedStatement is a slightly more powerful version of a Statement, and should always be at least as quick and easy to handle as a Statement.
  2. The PreparedStatement may be parametrized.


Longer answer: Most relational databases handles a JDBC / SQL query in four steps:

  1. Parse the incoming SQL query
  2. Compile the SQL query
  3. Plan/optimize the data acquisition path
  4. Execute the optimized query / acquire and return data


A Statement will always proceed through the four steps above for each SQL query sent to the database. A PreparedStatement pre-executes steps (1) - (3) in the execution process above. Thus, when creating a PreparedStatement some pre-optimization is performed immediately. The effect is to lessen the load on the database engine at execution time.

Code samples
Statement example 

// Assume a database connection, conn.
Statement stmnt = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try
{
   // Create the Statement
   stmnt = conn.createStatement();

   // Execute the query to obtain the ResultSet 
   rs = stmnt.executeQuery("select * from aTable");
}
catch(Exception ex)
{

   System.err.println("Database exception: " + ex);
}
PreparedStatement example 

// Assume a database connection, conn.
PreparedStatement stmnt = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try
{
   // Create the PreparedStatement
   stmnt = conn.prepareStatement("select * from aTable");

   // Execute the query to obtain the ResultSet 
   rs = stmnt.executeQuery();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
   System.err.println("Database exception: " + ex);
}


Another advantage of the PreparedStatement class is the ability to create an incomplete query and supply parameter values at execution time. This type of query is well suited for filtering queries which may differ in parameter value only:

SELECT firstName FROM employees WHERE salary > 50
SELECT firstName FROM employees WHERE salary > 200

To create a parametrized prepared statement, use the following syntax: 


// Assume a database connection, conn.
PreparedStatement stmnt = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try
{
  // Create the PreparedStatement, leaving a '?'
  // to indicate placement of a parameter.
  stmnt = conn.prepareStatement(
    "SELECT firstName FROM employees WHERE salary > ?");

  // Complete the statement
  stmnt.setInt(1, 200);

  // Execute the query to obtain the ResultSet 
  rs = stmnt.executeQuery();
}
  catch(Exception ex)
{
  System.err.println("Database exception: " + ex);
}