[java] How to get all table names from a database?

In your example problem is passed table name pattern in getTables function of DatabaseMetaData.

Some database supports Uppercase identifier, some support lower case identifiers. For example oracle fetches the table name in upper case, while postgreSQL fetch it in lower case.

DatabaseMetaDeta provides a method to determine how the database stores identifiers, can be mixed case, uppercase, lowercase see:http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/sql/DatabaseMetaData.html#storesMixedCaseIdentifiers()

From below example, you can get all tables and view of providing table name pattern, if you want only tables then remove "VIEW" from TYPES array.

public class DBUtility {
    private static final String[] TYPES = {"TABLE", "VIEW"};
    public static void getTableMetadata(Connection jdbcConnection, String tableNamePattern, String schema, String catalog, boolean isQuoted) throws HibernateException {
            try {
                DatabaseMetaData meta = jdbcConnection.getMetaData();
                ResultSet rs = null;
                try {
                    if ( (isQuoted && meta.storesMixedCaseQuotedIdentifiers())) {
                        rs = meta.getTables(catalog, schema, tableNamePattern, TYPES);
                    } else if ( (isQuoted && meta.storesUpperCaseQuotedIdentifiers())
                        || (!isQuoted && meta.storesUpperCaseIdentifiers() )) {
                        rs = meta.getTables(
                                StringHelper.toUpperCase(catalog),
                                StringHelper.toUpperCase(schema),
                                StringHelper.toUpperCase(tableNamePattern),
                                TYPES
                            );
                    }
                    else if ( (isQuoted && meta.storesLowerCaseQuotedIdentifiers())
                            || (!isQuoted && meta.storesLowerCaseIdentifiers() )) {
                        rs = meta.getTables( 
                                StringHelper.toLowerCase( catalog ),
                                StringHelper.toLowerCase(schema), 
                                StringHelper.toLowerCase(tableNamePattern), 
                                TYPES 
                            );
                    }
                    else {
                        rs = meta.getTables(catalog, schema, tableNamePattern, TYPES);
                    }

                    while ( rs.next() ) {
                        String tableName = rs.getString("TABLE_NAME");
                        System.out.println("table = " + tableName);
                    }



                }
                finally {
                    if (rs!=null) rs.close();
                }
            }
            catch (SQLException sqlException) {
                // TODO 
                sqlException.printStackTrace();
            }

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Connection jdbcConnection;
        try {
            jdbcConnection = DriverManager.getConnection("", "", "");
            getTableMetadata(jdbcConnection, "tbl%", null, null, false);
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}