How to check if a Cassandra table exists

Question

Is there an easy way to check if table (column family) is defined in Cassandra using CQL (or API perhaps, using com.datastax.driver)?

Right now I am leaning towards exec

Answer 1

The Java driver (since you mentioned it in your question) also maintains a local representation of the schema.

Driver 3.x and below:

KeyspaceMetadata ks = cluster.getMetadata().getKeyspace("myKeyspace");
TableMetadata table = ks.getTable("myTable");
boolean tableExists = (table != null);

Driver 4.x and above:

Metadata metadata = session.getMetadata();
boolean tableExists =
  metadata.getKeyspace("myKeyspace")
    .flatMap(ks -> ks.getTable("myTable"))
    .isPresent();