"alter table add" question...

[listenmirndt]

I am creating an installation script, Id like to be able to update it later, (with new tables, down the road) by re-running the install,

So, create table if not exists, works great, is there an "alter table if not exists" version?, because my install halts on a duplicate,

Thanks in advance

mysql_query ("
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS MANUAL (
`ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
PRIMARY KEY ( `id` ) )
")  or die (mysql_error());

mysql_query ("
ALTER TABLE `MANUAL`

ADD `IDNUMBER` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `EIDN` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `PPIDN` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `FILELINK` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `ITEM_NAME` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `GROSS_PRICE` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `PREF` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
ADD `BTN_STANDARD` TEXT NOT NULL ,
ADD `BTN_SQL` TEXT NOT NULL ,
ADD `BTN_EMAIL` TEXT NOT NULL ;

")  or die (mysql_error());

[swr]

Not sure if there is an "if not exists" for SQL, but what you could do is just remove the "or die". If the SQL statement fails, just assume it's because the column already exists, and continue with the process.

Ignoring errors like that is a bit dirty, but would get what you want. If you want to be more strict, you could examine the string returned by mysql_error() to make sure the error message is what you expected.