>> Pass as types parameter new String[]{"TABLE"}.
>
> Got that one sorted as well, but that is for getTables method. Which
> patterns do you use for the getColumns? Let's say I want to get only
> the user defined tables using getColumns. I used % for both
> tableNamePattern and columnNamePattern, which obviously returns all
> the tables (including system tables), which is not exactly what I
> want.

There no such possibility in JDBC. The getColumns usually is used to
fetch columns of one table. If you want to get all in one go, you have
to fetch all tables via getTables, cache the result set and then after
getting all columns via getColumns check whether table is TABLE, SYSTEM
TABLE or VIEW.

Roman