title: Loading JDBC driver
body: <p>I am told that the prefered method to load the JDBC driver is :</p>
  
  <pre><code>Class.forName(driverName);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I understand that this is better for a dynamic decision between multiple drivers maybe read from an XML config file or user input. The thing I am curious about is how does invoking this statement loads the stated driver into the environment where we are not even storing the resultant "Class" object anywhere. The JavaDocs entry says:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static Class forName(String className)
                   throws ClassNotFoundExceptionReturns 
  </code></pre>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>returns the Class object associated with the class or interface with the given string name</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>In that case, how do the Java developers managed to facilitate the existence of driver object with merely this statement?</p>