What is use of NamedParameterJdbcTemplate in Spring Framework

[Java Tip]

The NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class has support for programming JDBC statements using named parameters which is generally not supported by other J2ee frameworks.

Following piece of code will make it clearer:

Code:

// some JDBC-backed DAO class...
public int countCustomerBynamee(String firstName) {

String sql = "select count(0) from Customer where first_name = :first_name";
NamedParameterJdbcTemplate template = 
      new NamedParameterJdbcTemplate(this.getDataSource());

SqlParameterSource parametersName = 
      new SimpleSqlParameterSource("first_name", firstName);
return template.queryForInt(sql, parametersName);
}