public List<Guard> getGuards() throws Exception { List<Guard> rv = new ArrayList<Guard>(); Class.forName("org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver"); Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:hsqldb:/home/hsqldb/testdb", "sa", ""); Statement s = conn.createStatement(); ResultSet rs = s.executeQuery("SELECT id, name, age FROM guard"); while (rs.next()) { Guard g = new Guard(); g.setId(rs.getInt(1)); g.setName(rs.getString(2)); g.setAge(rs.getInt(3)); rv.add(g); } return rv; }