Getting table names of all tables in a particular database in MS SQL Server using Java

Question

I am trying to get the names of all tables in a database in using Java.

This is the method I am using. However, on running it, it also lists other tables, which are not actually part of my database, or maybe some system tables that I am not interested in. How can I get only the tables which I have created?

/* connecting to database using supplied credentials, and printing out the SQL queries for inserting data to local db */
    public void connectToAzure(String connectionString, String databaseName, String username, String password) throws ClassNotFoundException, SQLException
    {
        Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");  

        final Connection m_Connection = DriverManager.getConnection( connectionString+";DatabaseName="+databaseName, username, password );
        final ArrayList<String> tables = getTableNames(m_Connection);
    }

/* helper method to get table names */
    public ArrayList<String> getTableNames(final Connection m_Connection)
    {
        final ArrayList<String> tables = new ArrayList<>();
        try
        {
            DatabaseMetaData dbmd = m_Connection.getMetaData();
            String[] types = {"TABLE"};
            ResultSet rs = dbmd.getTables(null, null, "%", types);
            while (rs.next())
            {
                String tableName = rs.getString("TABLE_NAME");
                tables.add( tableName );
            }
        } 
        catch (SQLException e) 
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return tables;
    }

Output on running the above

table1, table2, table3, table4, table5, table6, trace_xe_action_map, trace_xe_event_map

Of these,

trace_xe_action_map, trace_xe_event_map

are not tables that I have created.

Answer 1

You might want to run a simple select query on the database like this:

select TABLE_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

You can further filter out the table_names using where clauses like these:

SELECT 
    TABLE_NAME
FROM
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE
    TABLE_CATALOG = ? AND TABLE_SCHEMA = ?;