# Specifying attributes in a properties object

Instead of specifying attributes on the connection URL, you can specify attributes as properties in a `Properties` object that you pass as a second argument to the `DriverManager.getConnection` method.

For example, to set the user name and password:

    Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver");

    Properties p = new Properties();

    p.setProperty("user", "sa");
    p.setProperty("password", "manager");
    p.setProperty("create", "true");

    Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(
        "jdbc:derby:mynewDB", p);

If you are running on JDK 6 or higher, you do not normally need to invoke `Class.forName()`. In that environment, the `EmbeddedDriver` loads automatically. The only exception to this rule is when you need to shut down Derby in the middle of your application and then restart it. To restart Derby, create a new instance of the driver as follows:

    Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver").newInstance();

Parent topic: Working with the database connection URL attributes
Related tasks
Creating and accessing a database
Related reference
Using the databaseName attribute