An example of performing a JDBC query from Java and handling exceptions correctly

jdbcexample.java

/**
 * A correct example of performing a SQL query using JDBC.
 *
 * See http://lpar.ath0.com/2008/09/05/java-jdbc-and-memory-leaks/ for
 * discussion; correct examples of Java JDBC code are surprisingly rare. 
 */
public static void doSomething() {
  try {
    Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(JDBC_URL);
    try {
      PreparedStatement statement = connection.prepareStatement("SELECT FIRST,LAST FROM PEOPLE WHERE LAST = ?");
      try {
        statement.setString(1, "Smith");
        statement.execute();
        ResultSet results = statement.getResultSet();
        try {
          while (results.next()) {
            String first = results.getString(1);
            String last = results.getString(2);
            logger.info(first + " " + last);
          }
        } finally {
          results.close();
        }
      } finally {
        statement.close();
      }
    } finally {
      connection.close();
    }
  } catch (SQLException e) {
    logger.severe("Failed to get JDBC connection: " + e.getMessage());
  }
}