ResultSet exception - before start of result set

Basically you are positioning the cursor before the first row and then requesting data. You need to move the cursor to the first row.

 result.next();
 String foundType = result.getString(1);

It is common to do this in an if statement or loop.

if(result.next()){
   foundType = result.getString(1);
}

Every answer uses .next() or uses .beforeFirst() and then .next(). But why not this:

result.first();

So You just set the pointer to the first record and go from there. It's available since java 1.2 and I just wanted to mention this for anyone whose ResultSet exists of one specific record.

You have to do a result.next() before you can access the result. It's a very common idiom to do

ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery();
while (rs.next())
{
   int foo = rs.getInt(1);
   ...
}