public static byte[] getTableStartRowForMeta(TableName tableName, QueryType type) {
    if (tableName == null) {
      return null;
    }
    switch (type) {
      case REGION:
      case REPLICATION: {
        byte[] startRow = new byte[tableName.getName().length + 2];
        System.arraycopy(tableName.getName(), 0, startRow, 0, tableName.getName().length);
        startRow[startRow.length - 2] = HConstants.DELIMITER;
        startRow[startRow.length - 1] = HConstants.DELIMITER;
        return startRow;
      }
      case ALL:
      case TABLE:
      default: {
        return tableName.getName();
      }
    }
  }
Returns start row for scanning META according to query type
hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ClientMetaTableAccessor.java