Check if table exists in SQL Server

Question

I would like this to be the ultimate discussion on how to check if a table exists in SQL Server 2000/2005 using SQL Statements.

When you Google for the answer, you g

Answer 1

Just adding here, for the benefit of developers and fellow DBAs

a script that receives @Tablename as a parameter

(which may or may not contain the schemaname) and returns the info below if the schema.table exists:

the_name                object_id   the_schema  the_table       the_type
[Facts].[FactBackOrder] 758293761   Facts       FactBackOrder   Table

I produced this script to be used inside other scripts every time I need to test whether or not a table or view exists, and when it does, get its object_id to be used for other purposes.

It raises an error when either you passed an empty string, wrong schema name or wrong table name.

this could be inside a procedure and return -1 for example.

As an example, I have a table called "Facts.FactBackOrder" in one of my Data Warehouse databases.

This is how I achieved this:

PRINT 'THE SERVER IS ' + @@SERVERNAME
--select db_name()
PRINT 'THE DATABASE IS ' + db_NAME() 
PRINT ''
GO

SET NOCOUNT ON
GO

--===================================================================================
-- @TableName is the parameter
-- the object we want to deal with (it might be an indexed view or a table)
-- the schema might or might not be specified
-- when not specified it is DBO
--===================================================================================

DECLARE @TableName SYSNAME

SELECT @TableName = 'Facts.FactBackOrder'
--===================================================================================
--===================================================================================
DECLARE @Schema SYSNAME
DECLARE @I INT
DECLARE @Z INT 

SELECT @TableName = LTRIM(RTRIM(@TableName))
SELECT @Z = LEN(@TableName)

IF (@Z = 0) BEGIN

            RAISERROR('Invalid @Tablename passed.',16,1)

END 

SELECT @I = CHARINDEX('.',@TableName )
--SELECT @TableName ,@I

IF @I > 0 BEGIN

        --===================================================================================
        -- a schema and table name have been passed
        -- example Facts.FactBackOrder 
        -- @Schema = Fact
        -- @TableName = FactBackOrder
        --===================================================================================

   SELECT @Schema    = SUBSTRING(@TABLENAME,1,@I-1)
   SELECT @TableName = SUBSTRING(@TABLENAME,@I+1,@Z-@I)



END
ELSE BEGIN

        --===================================================================================
        -- just a table name have been passed
        -- so the schema will be dbo
        -- example Orders
        -- @Schema = dbo
        -- @TableName = Orders
        --===================================================================================

   SELECT @Schema    = 'DBO'     


END

        --===================================================================================
        -- Check whether the @SchemaName is valid in the current database
        --===================================================================================

IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA K WHERE K.[SCHEMA_NAME] = @Schema ) BEGIN

            RAISERROR('Invalid Schema Name.',16,1)

END 

--SELECT @Schema  as [@Schema]
--      ,@TableName as [@TableName]


DECLARE @R1 TABLE (

   THE_NAME SYSNAME
  ,THE_SCHEMA SYSNAME
  ,THE_TABLE SYSNAME
  ,OBJECT_ID INT
  ,THE_TYPE SYSNAME
  ,PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (THE_SCHEMA,THE_NAME)

)

;WITH RADHE_01 AS (
SELECT QUOTENAME(SCHEMA_NAME(O.schema_id)) + '.' + QUOTENAME(O.NAME) AS [the_name]
      ,the_schema=SCHEMA_NAME(O.schema_id)
      ,the_table=O.NAME
      ,object_id =o.object_id 
      ,[the_type]= CASE WHEN O.TYPE = 'U' THEN 'Table' ELSE 'View' END 
from sys.objects O
where O.is_ms_shipped = 0
AND O.TYPE IN ('U','V')
)
INSERT INTO @R1 (
   THE_NAME 
  ,THE_SCHEMA 
  ,THE_TABLE 
  ,OBJECT_ID
  ,THE_TYPE 
)
SELECT  the_name
       ,the_schema
       ,the_table
       ,object_id
       ,the_type
FROM RADHE_01
WHERE the_schema = @Schema 
  AND the_table  = @TableName

IF (@@ROWCOUNT = 0) BEGIN 

             RAISERROR('Invalid Table Name.',16,1)

END 
ELSE BEGIN

    SELECT     THE_NAME 
              ,THE_SCHEMA 
              ,THE_TABLE 
              ,OBJECT_ID
              ,THE_TYPE 

    FROM @R1

END