How to see all the tables in an HSQLDB database?

I usually use SQLDeveloper to browse the database, but I couldn't make it work with HSQLDB and I don't know which tables are already created… I guess it's a vendor-specific question and not plain SQL, but the point is: how can I see the tables so I can drop/alter them?

Solution 1:

The ANSI SQL92 standard for querying database metadata is contained within the INFORMATION_SCHEMA data structures.

I have no idea whether your database supports this or not, but try the following:

SELECT *
FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

On further research, it appears that HSQLDB does support INFORMATION_SCHEMA, but with slightly non-standard naming.

All of the tables have SYSTEM_* prepended to them, so the above example would read

SELECT *
FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SYSTEM_TABLES

I have no means of testing this, and the answer was found on sourceforge.

Solution 2:

Awesome, thanks! Been scouring the Web for that info. This will fetch only your tables' field info:

SELECT TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, TYPE_NAME, COLUMN_SIZE, DECIMAL_DIGITS, IS_NULLABLE FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SYSTEM_COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME NOT LIKE 'SYSTEM_%'

You can retrieve indexes, primary key info, all kinds of stuff from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SYSTEM_TABLES. Gotta love oo documentation :p