Here's a quick JDBC with HSQLDB tutorial to get you up and running with Java database connectivity and the popular HyperSQL database.

IDG Figure 1. JDBC connects Java programs to databases. JDBC vs ODBC Before JDBC, developers used Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), a language-agnostic standard approach to accessing a relational ...

Write, build, and run an example application that persists data to and from a relational database using Hibernate, JPA, and the repository pattern.

A developer shouldn't spend time on database table creation when unit tests run. Instead, have Hibernate create tables in the database for JPA and other data-driven applications.