spark-instrumented-optimizer/docs/sql-ref-syntax-aux-show-tables.md

---
layout: global
title: SHOW TABLES
displayTitle: SHOW TABLES
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  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
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---

### Description

The `SHOW TABLES` statement returns all the tables for an optionally specified database.
Additionally, the output of this statement may be filtered by an optional matching
pattern. If no database is specified then the tables are returned from the 
current database.

### Syntax

```sql
SHOW TABLES [ { FROM | IN } database_name ] [ LIKE regex_pattern ]
```

### Parameters

* **{ FROM `|` IN } database_name**

     Specifies the database name from which tables are listed.

* **regex_pattern**

     Specifies the regular expression pattern that is used to filter out unwanted tables. 

     * Except for `*` and `|` character, the pattern works like a regular expression.
     * `*` alone matches 0 or more characters and `|` is used to separate multiple different regular expressions,
       any of which can match.
     * The leading and trailing blanks are trimmed in the input pattern before processing. The pattern match is case-insensitive.

### Examples

```sql
-- List all tables in default database
SHOW TABLES;
+--------+---------+-----------+
|database|tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+---------+-----------+
| default|      sam|      false|
| default|     sam1|      false|
| default|      suj|      false|
+--------+---------+-----------+

-- List all tables from userdb database 
SHOW TABLES FROM userdb;
+--------+---------+-----------+
|database|tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+---------+-----------+
|  userdb|    user1|      false|
|  userdb|    user2|      false|
+--------+---------+-----------+

-- List all tables in userdb database
SHOW TABLES IN userdb;
+--------+---------+-----------+
|database|tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+---------+-----------+
|  userdb|    user1|      false|
|  userdb|    user2|      false|
+--------+---------+-----------+

-- List all tables from default database matching the pattern `sam*`
SHOW TABLES FROM default LIKE 'sam*';
+--------+---------+-----------+
|database|tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+---------+-----------+
| default|      sam|      false|
| default|     sam1|      false|
+--------+---------+-----------+
  
-- List all tables matching the pattern `sam*|suj`
SHOW TABLES LIKE 'sam*|suj';
+--------+---------+-----------+
|database|tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+---------+-----------+
| default|      sam|      false|
| default|     sam1|      false|
| default|      suj|      false|
+--------+---------+-----------+
```

### Related Statements

* [CREATE TABLE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-create-table.html)
* [DROP TABLE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-drop-table.html)
* [CREATE DATABASE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-create-database.html)
* [DROP DATABASE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-drop-database.html)