What is DatabaseMetaData in JDBC

DatabaseMetaData interface:

DatabaseMetaData interface provides methods to get meta data of a database such as database product name, database product version, driver name, name of total number of tables, name of total number of views etc.

 Methods of DatabaseMetaData interface:

public String getDriverName()throws SQLException: it returns the name of the JDBC driver.
public String getDriverVersion()throws SQLException: it returns the version number of the JDBC driver.
public String getUserName()throws SQLException: it returns the username of the database.
public String getDatabaseProductName()throws SQLException: it returns the product name of the database.
public String getDatabaseProductVersion()throws SQLException: it returns the product version of the database.
public ResultSet getTables(String catalog, String schemaPattern, String tableNamePattern,String[] types) throws SQLException:  it returns the description of the tables of the specified catalog. The table type can be TABLE, VIEW,SYSTEM TABLE, SYNONYM etc.

How to get the object of DatabaseMetaData ?

The getMetaData() method of Connection interface returns the object of DatabaseMetaData.

Syntax:

public DatabaseMetaData getMetaData()throws SQLException

Simple Example of DatabaseMetaData interface :

 import java.sql.*;

 class DatabaseMd {
 public static void main(String []args){
 try{
 Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
 Connection con=DriverManager.getConnection( "jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:xe","system","oracle");
 DatabaseMetaData dbmd=con.getMetaData();
 System.out.println("Driver Name: "+dbmd.getDriverName());
 System.out.println("Driver Version: "+dbmd.getDriverVersion());
 System.out.println("UserName: "+dbmd.getUserName());
 System.out.println("Database Product Name: "+dbmd.getDatabaseProductName());
 System.out.println("Database Product Version: "+dbmd.getDatabaseProductVersion());
 con.close();
 }catch(Exception e){
 System.out.println(e);
  }
 }

Output: Driver Name: Oracle JDBC Driver
Driver Version: 10.2.0.1.0XE
Database Product Name: Oracle
Database Product Version: Oracle Database 10g Express Edition
Release 10.2.0.1.0 -Production