Difference between JDBC Driver type numbers

Question

I noticed that JDBC has different Drivers like:

1. Type 1 Driver
2. Type 2 Driver etc.. to Type 4

Why did they get the name like Type 1, Typ

Answer 1

The numbers aren't very informative. I find it more useful to think of it along the lines of:

• Local API (1,2) vs network protocol (3, 4)
• Database-independent (odd numbers) vs database-specific (even numbers)

I could never remember the numbers, but when someone said "we use a type-4 driver here", I could ask two yes-no questions to know what they were talking about.