http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/sql/ResultSetMetaData.html

Here's an example:

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import java.sql.*;

class SelectSample
{
 public static void main (String args []) throws SQLException
 {
   DriverManager.registerDriver(new YourDriver());
   String cstring   = "the Connection string";

   Connection conn  =
     DriverManager.getConnection (cstring);

   Statement  stmt  = conn.createStatement ();
   String     query = "the query";

   ResultSet rset   = stmt.executeQuery (query);
   ResultSetMetaData rsMetaData = rset.getMetaData();

   int columnCount = rsMetaData.getColumnCount();

   for (int i = 0; i < columnCount; i++)
   {
     String columnName = rsMetaData.getColumnName(i+1);
     System.out.print(columnName + "\t");
   }

   System.out.println("");

   while (rset.next ())
   {
     for (int i = 0; i < columnCount; i++)
     {
       System.out.print (rset.getString (i+1) + "\t");
     }
     System.out.println ("");
   }

   // Don't forget to clean up...

   rset.close();
   stmt.close();
   conn.close();
 }
}

// Bjorn A