hi-

for completeness i posted the entire code.
thanks for taking a look.

for some reason my newsreader xnews is not working so
i had to use outlook express.  this explains the delay between my posts.

it is greatly appreciated.

later
jim

import java.sql.*;

public class testConnection {

static final String JDBC_DRIVER ="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
static  final String DATABASE_URL="jdbc:mysql://localhost/test";

public static void main(String args[]) {

 Connection con=null;
 Statement stmt=null;
 System.out.println("what in the world am i doing wrong?");

String query="Select password('boogity bop')";

try {
 Class.forName(JDBC_DRIVER);

 con = DriverManager.getConnection(DATABASE_URL,"root","");
 stmt= con.createStatement();
 ResultSet rs=stmt.executeQuery(query);
      ResultSetMetaData metaData = rs.getMetaData();
      int numberOfColumns = metaData.getColumnCount();

   while (rs.next()){

   }
}

catch (ClassNotFoundException classNotFound)
  {
        classNotFound.printStackTrace();

          System.exit(1);

  }
         finally
         {
              try
              {
                  stmt.close();
                   con.close();
              }
                      catch (Exception exception)
                     {
                         exception.printStackTrace();
                         System.exit(1);
                    }

       }

   }

}