Database? How-To...

First off I am a BIG NEWBIE to Java. I'm still reading the tutorials on the Sun Java website. Even though I'm just in the beginning stages of the tutorials I already know what kind of program that I am wanting to create. This program is actually what got me interested in learning Java.

Anyways, to my question. I do have some programming background mainly in QBasic and Visual Basic 2008. However, I've never had to create a database before. For this program, I will need to create a database, which I was thinking of using Microsoft Access. The database would hold a list of towns and/or cities, states, dates and times, etc. All of this information gives the locations for all the meeting places for a particular organization. The organization has chapters nationwide and I am basically creating a chapter locator for them so users can find a chapter near them. I'm not sure what type of database is needed for this. I know there are several templates available for me to use and I know there are many ways to create a database. Any suggestions?

Have a look at using JDBC.

Trail: JDBC(TM) Database Access (The Java™ Tutorials)

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Ok so I'm a little confused by that link. I think I sorta understand Access in a way. When I opened up Access 2007 one of the database templates that I opened looked a lot like Excel in a way.I don't need to learn how to tie my database into my program just yet. I need to create the database first. The main thing I'm trying to figure out is if I were to use a database template which template would I need?