diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
index 693be99d4749..1d1358487abc 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{ExprUtils, GenericRowWithSchema}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.CatalystSqlParser
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.arrow.ArrowConverters
-import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.command.ShowTablesCommand
 import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.StaticSQLConf.CATALOG_IMPLEMENTATION
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 
@@ -216,15 +215,6 @@ private[sql] object SQLUtils extends Logging {
     }
   }
 
-  def getTables(sparkSession: SparkSession, databaseName: String): DataFrame = {
-    databaseName match {
-      case n: String if n != null && n.trim.nonEmpty =>
-        Dataset.ofRows(sparkSession, ShowTablesCommand(Some(n), None))
-      case _ =>
-        Dataset.ofRows(sparkSession, ShowTablesCommand(None, None))
-    }
-  }
-
   def getTableNames(sparkSession: SparkSession, databaseName: String): Array[String] = {
     val db = databaseName match {
       case _ if databaseName != null && databaseName.trim.nonEmpty =>