@Override
  public String getTableType() {
    if (tableType != null) {
      return tableType;
    } else {
      return "";
    }
  }
Note that we get an Iterator rather than an Iterable here: so we can only walk thru the list once
standalone-metastore/metastore-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/metastore/messaging/json/JSONAddPartitionMessage.java