How is it able to connect to database even if jdbc driver is not loaded

[Rajiv KumarRai]

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;




public class Test1 {
	
	//JDBC Driver name and database URL
	static final String JDBC_DRIVER = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
	static final String DB_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/userdata";
	
	//Database credentials
	 static final String USER = "root";
	 static final String PASS = "password";
	
	public static void main(String[] args)  {
		
		Connection conn = null;
		Statement stmt = null;
		//DatabaseMetaData md = null;
		
		try {
			//Class.forName(JDBC_DRIVER);
			conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL, USER, PASS);
			
			//
			//md = (DatabaseMetaData) conn.getMetaData();
			
			stmt = conn.createStatement();
			String sql;
			sql = "select PID,PNAME,PRICE from products";
			ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);
			
			
			while(rs.next()) {
				int PID = rs.getInt("PID");
				String PNAME = rs.getString("PNAME");
				double PRICE = rs.getDouble("PRICE");
				
				System.out.println("PID=" + PID);
				System.out.println("PNAME=" + PNAME);
				System.out.println("PRICE=" + PRICE);
			}
			rs.close();
		    stmt.close();
		    conn.close();
		}
		catch(SQLException se) {
			 
			 while(se != null) { 
				 
				 System.out.println(se.getMessage());
				 System.out.println(se.getSQLState());
				 System.out.println("Vendor Error Code: " + se.getErrorCode());
				 se = se.getNextException();
				 
				 } 
	        
		}
		catch(Exception ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
		finally {
			try {
				if(stmt != null){
					stmt.close();
				}
			}
			catch(SQLException se2) {
				
			}
			try{
				if(conn != null) {
					conn.close();
				}
			}
			catch(SQLException e) {
				e.printStackTrace();
			}
		}
	}
}

Hi,
When I run the above code , am able to get the results from database.
But I cant understand how is it so as the code line which loads the jdbc driver
is commented.

Please shed some light on the above issue.

Thanks

[K. Tsang]

Are you using JDBC 4.0 driver? If so the tutorial here states that

DriverManager: This fully implemented class connects an application to a data source, which is specified by a database URL. When this class first attempts to establish a connection, it automatically loads any JDBC 4.0 drivers found within the class path. Note that your application must manually load any JDBC drivers prior to version 4.0.

If not the Class.forName(....) line would be needed.