How to get `List<string>` of table names from MySQL db?

Question

How can I get List<string> of all table names contained in a MySQL database?

I want to load a complete database into a DataSet but from my understanding it seems that MySqlDataAdapter.Fill() only operates on single tables, correct? That is what I want to use the table string collection for.

EDIT:

1. I look for the correct query: The following returns 59 different items despite the database only holding 3 tables:

       MySqlCommand command = new MySqlCommand("SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables where table_type = 'BASE TABLE'", connection);
       var result = command.ExecuteReader();
   

2. I look for C# code to parse the result of the query into a List<string>.

Answer 1

Use Entity fraemwork, add your schema to the dbcontext then you can make something like:

var tableNames = context.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.SSpace)
                        .Select(t => t.Name)
                        .ToList();

EDIT:

Alternativly you can read the tablen names using a normal sql query (for example using Show tables) and parse these into a list like:

List<String> Tablenames = new List<String>();

using(SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("conn_string"))
{
    string query = "show tables from YourDB";
    SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(query, connection);
    using (SqlDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader())
    {
        while (reader.Read())
        {
            Tablenames.Add(reader.GetString(0));
        }         
    }
}

Answer 2

• Download and install Connector/Net first.This is necessary to use MySQL in C# .MySQL for Visual Studio is not necessary,but I recommend you to install it.It can help you designing MySQL databases in Visual Studio.

• Add reference to MySql.Data

• Add using MySql.Data.MySqlClient; in your code.

Declare a function like this:

public List<string> MySqlCollectionQuery(MySqlConnection connection, string cmd)
{
    List<string> QueryResult = new List<string>();
    MySqlCommand cmdName = new MySqlCommand(cmd, connection);
    MySqlDataReader reader = cmdName.ExecuteReader();
    while (reader.Read())
    {
        QueryResult.Add(reader.GetString(0));
    }
    reader.Close();
    return QueryResult;
}

Then create a MySql connection and call this function:

string connStr = string.Format("user={0};password={1};database={2}",
                                username,password,database);
List<string>TableNames = new List<string>();//Stores table names in List<string> form
using(MySqlConnection Conn = new MySqlConnection(connStr))
{
    Conn.Open();
    string cmdStr = "show tables";
    TableNames = MySqlCollectionQuery(Conn,cmdStr);
}

I did not put this in a try ... catch block,but it is always a good practice to do that.