java.sql.DatabaseMetaData

java.sql.DatabaseMetaData is an interface that defines database objects.

Description

This interface provides comprehensive information about the entire database. It is implemented by driver vendors and enables users to learn about the features available after a Database Management System (DBMS) is used in combination with the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver. Note that the term "database" used in this documentation refers to both the driver and DBMS.

A user for interface is commonly a tool that needs to deal with the underlying DBMS. For example, a tool may use the getTypeInfo method to find out the data types that can be used in a CREATE TABLE statement. Alternatively, a user may call the supportsCorrelatedSubqueries method to check whether a correlated subquery can be used, or call the supportsBatchUpdates method to check whether batch updates are supported.

Some DatabaseMetaData methods return lists of information in the form of ResultSet objects. Regular ResultSet methods, such as getString and getInt, can be used to retrieve data from these ResultSet objects. If metadata in a given form is unavailable, an empty ResultSet object will be returned. Except the columns defined to be returned by the ResultSet object for a given method, other columns can be defined by the JDBC driver vendor and must be accessed by their column label.

Some DatabaseMetaData methods take arguments that are String patterns. In a String pattern, "%" indicates to match any substring of zero or more characters, and "_" indicates to match any one character. For a search pattern, only metadata entries that match the search pattern are returned. If a search pattern argument is set to null, the criteria of the argument will be dropped from the search.

Methods