how to check if a table exists?

[lensherm]

What is the SQL statement for checking the existance of a table in a schema?

[Anon]

I don't really know but you could do a SHOW TABLES; and see if the table is in that list. Hmm, I wonder if you can do a SELECT on TABLES.

[junebug]

this works very well:

select count(*) from table where 1 = 0

[lawnmowerman]

You could use the PHP function mysql_list_tables() with mysql_tablename() in order to populate an array and then use in_array() to test if the table exists.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/manual/function.mysql-list-tables.php
http://www.phpbuilder.com/manual/function.mysql-tablename.php
http://www.phpbuilder.com/manual/function.in-array.php

Or, you could use mysql_select_db() as normal and see if the DB select returns true or false.

Hope this helps.

-Rich

[neuromancer]

Here is the statement for Microsoft SQL Server

SELECT OBJECT_ID('Object Name') AS OBJECT_ID

This will return some huge number or NULL.

[lensherm]

Thanks to all. I'll try when I get to work tomorrow morning. By the way, I am using mySQL

[Anon]

With mysql you can use this sql statement:
show tables like "table_name";

This return an empty set or the tablename.
Bye