Heres two of my classes.  The first one is the applet class.  It
creates a DataConnection class.  The DataConnection class queries an
access database.

//**************
//Applet class
//**************

package consultviewer;

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;

public class Main2 extends javax.swing.JApplet{

   JPanel jpan;
   Panel panel;

   int width = 794;

   public void init(){
    setSize(width, 500);
   }

   public Main2(){
    DataConnection dc = new DataConnection();

    DefaultListModel testing = dc.queryConnection("SELECT * FROM
newconsult;");
    System.out.println(testing);
   }
}

//**********
//DataConnection Class
//**********

package consultviewer;

import java.sql.*;
import javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
import javax.swing.*;

class DataConnection
      {

   String filename = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Owner\\Consult.mdb";

   public DefaultListModel queryConnection(String sql){

       sql = sql.replace('"', '\'');
       Connection connection = null; // manages connection
       Statement statement = null; // query statement
       DefaultListModel returnedResults = null;
       // connect to database books and query database
       try {
           Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");
           String database = "jdbc:odbc:Driver={Microsoft Access
Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=";
           database+= filename.trim() + ";DriverID=22;READONLY=true}";
// add on to the end
           // establish connection to database
           connection = DriverManager.getConnection( database ,"","");

           // create Statement for querying database
           statement = connection.createStatement();
           // query database

           ResultSet resultSet = statement.executeQuery(sql);

           // process query results
           ResultSetMetaData metaData = resultSet.getMetaData();
           int numberOfColumns = metaData.getColumnCount();

           returnedResults = new DefaultListModel();

           while ( resultSet.next()){
               for ( int i = 1; i <= numberOfColumns; i++ ){
                   returnedResults.addElement(resultSet.getObject(i));
               }
           } // end while

       }  // end try

       catch ( SQLException sqlException ) {
           sqlException.printStackTrace();
           System.exit( 1 );
       } // end catch
       catch ( ClassNotFoundException classNotFound ) {
           classNotFound.printStackTrace();
           System.exit( 1 );
       } // end catch
       finally // ensure statement and connection are closed properly
       {
           try {
               statement.close();
               connection.close();
           } // end try
           catch ( Exception exception ) {
        System.out.println("it failed here");
               exception.printStackTrace();
               System.exit( 1 );
           } // end catch
       } // end finally
       return returnedResults;
   }
}