Metadata Handling for Cultural Databases – Using ResultSetMetaData and DatabaseMetaData in JDBC

Metadata Handling for Cultural Databases

When working with Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) datasets, understanding the structure of the database is just as important as querying the data itself. JDBC provides ResultSetMetaData and DatabaseMetaData interfaces to extract detailed schema information, which is useful for documentation, data validation, and interoperability between systems.

1. ResultSetMetaData

This interface provides information about the columns of a ResultSet object, such as column name, data type, and precision.

import java.sql.*;

public class IKSMetadataExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/iks_db";
        String user = "root";
        String password = "your_password";

        try (Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, password)) {
            Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
            ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM ayurvedic_herbs");

            ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
            int columnCount = rsmd.getColumnCount();

            for (int i = 1; i <= columnCount; i++) {
                System.out.println("Column Name: " + rsmd.getColumnName(i));
                System.out.println("Type: " + rsmd.getColumnTypeName(i));
                System.out.println("---");
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

2. DatabaseMetaData

This interface provides database-wide metadata, such as table names, supported SQL features, and driver information.

DatabaseMetaData dbmd = con.getMetaData();
System.out.println("Database Product Name: " + dbmd.getDatabaseProductName());
System.out.println("Database Version: " + dbmd.getDatabaseProductVersion());

ResultSet tables = dbmd.getTables(null, null, "%", new String[] {"TABLE"});
while (tables.next()) {
    System.out.println("Table: " + tables.getString("TABLE_NAME"));
}

✅ Tip: Metadata handling is crucial for documenting the schema of cultural datasets, especially when sharing them with researchers or integrating with other heritage platforms.