What is DatabaseMetaData in JDBC? What is its significance?


Generally, Data about data is known as metadata. The DatabaseMetaData interface provides methods to get information about the database you have connected with like, database name, database driver version, maximum column length etc...

Following are some methods of DatabaseMetaData class.

MethodDescription
getDriverName()Retrieves the name of the current JDBC driver
getDriverVersion()Retrieves the version of the current JDBC driver
getUserName()Retrieves the user name.
getDatabaseProductName()Retrieves the name of the current database.
getDatabaseProductVersion()Retrieves the version of the current database.
getNumericFunctions()Retrieves the list of the numeric functions available with this database.
getStringFunctions()Retrieves the list of the numeric functions available with this database.
getSystemFunctions()Retrieves the list of the system functions available with this database.
getTimeDateFunctions()Retrieves the list of the time and date functions available with this database.
getURL()Retrieves the URL for the current database.
supportsSavepoints()Verifies weather the current database supports save points
supportsStoredProcedures()Verifies weather the current database supports stored procedures.
supportsTransactions()Verifies weather the current database supports transactions.

Example

Following example demonstrates the usage of DatabaseMetaData class.

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DatabaseMetaData;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
public class DatabaseMetadataExample {
   public static void main(String args[])throws Exception {
      //Getting the connection
      String mysqlUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/sampleDB";
      Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(mysqlUrl, "root", "password");
      System.out.println("Connection established......");

      //Creating the DatabaseMetaData object
      DatabaseMetaData dbMetadata = con.getMetaData();
      //invoke the supportsBatchUpdates() method.
      boolean bool = dbMetadata.supportsBatchUpdates();

      if(bool) {
         System.out.println("Underlying database supports batch updates");
      } else {
         System.out.println("Underlying database doesnt supports batch updates");
      }

      //Retrieving the driver name
      System.out.println(dbMetadata.getDriverName());
      //Retrieving the driver version
      System.out.println(dbMetadata.getDriverVersion());
      //Retrieving the user name
      System.out.println(dbMetadata.getUserName());
      //Retrieving the URL
      System.out.println(dbMetadata.getURL());
      //Retrieving the list of numeric functions
      System.out.println("Numeric functions: "+dbMetadata.getNumericFunctions());
      System.out.println("");
      //Retrieving the list of String functions
      System.out.println("String functions: "+dbMetadata.getStringFunctions());
      System.out.println("");
      //Retrieving the list of system functions
      System.out.println("System functions: "+dbMetadata.getSystemFunctions());
      System.out.println("");
      //Retrieving the list of time and date functions
      System.out.println("Time and Date funtions: "+dbMetadata.getTimeDateFunctions());
   }
}

Output

Connection established......
Underlying database supports batch updates
MySQL-AB JDBC Driver
mysql-connector-java-5.1.12 ( Revision: ${bzr.revision-id} )
root@localhost
jdbc:mysql://localhost/sampleDB
Numeric functions:
ABS,ACOS,ASIN,ATAN,ATAN2,BIT_COUNT,CEILING,COS,COT,DEGREES,EXP,FLOOR,LOG,LOG10,MAX
,MIN,MOD,PI,POW,POWER,RADIANS,RAND,ROUND,SIN,SQRT,TAN,TRUNCATE
String functions:
ASCII,BIN,BIT_LENGTH,CHAR,CHARACTER_LENGTH,CHAR_LENGTH,CONCAT,CONCAT_WS,CONV,ELT,E
XPORT_SET,FIELD,FIND_IN_SET,HEX,INSERT,INSTR,LCASE,LEFT,LENGTH,LOAD_FILE,LOCATE,LO
CATE,LOWER,LPAD,LTRIM,MAKE_SET,MATCH,MID,OCT,OCTET_LENGTH,ORD,POSITION,QUOTE,REPEA
T,REPLACE,REVERSE,RIGHT,RPAD,RTRIM,SOUNDEX,SPACE,STRCMP,SUBSTRING,SUBSTRING,SUBSTR
ING,SUBSTRING,SUBSTRING_INDEX,TRIM,UCASE,UPPER
System functions:
DATABASE,USER,SYSTEM_USER,SESSION_USER,PASSWORD,ENCRYPT,LAST_INSERT_ID,VERSION
Time and Date funtions:
DAYOFWEEK,WEEKDAY,DAYOFMONTH,DAYOFYEAR,MONTH,DAYNAME,MONTHNAME,QUARTER,WEEK,YEAR,H
OUR,MINUTE,SECOND,PERIOD_ADD,PERIOD_DIFF,TO_DAYS,FROM_DAYS,DATE_FORMAT,TIME_FORMAT
,CURDATE,CURRENT_DATE,CURTIME,CURRENT_TIME,NOW,SYSDATE,CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,UNIX_TIME
STAMP,FROM_UNIXTIME,SEC_TO_TIME,TIME_TO_SEC

Updated on: 30-Jul-2019

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