Create table but Drop it if the table exists already

Question

I am working on a request where I have to create a table to insert some data. So, obviously I will have first have a delete table st. before the create st. but when I am run

Answer 1

You can create a stored procedure owned by SYSDBA or other admin level user with adequate DROP TABLE and CREATE TABLE privileges that does the following:

1. Check DBC.Tables to see if object exists.
2. If object exists, drop it.
3. Run the DDL to recreate the table: CREATE TABLE . AS . WITH DATA AND STATS;

You can make it more dynamic by accepting additional parameters on whether the data and/or stats should be copied to the new table.

If you are using BTEQ, you can do something similar (BTEQ command syntax may be a little off but close enough to get the point across):

SELECT 1 
FROM DBC.TABLES 
WHERE DatabaseName = ''
  AND TableName = ''
  AND TableKind = 'T' /* Make sure it is in fact a table, not a view, macro etc */


.IF ACIVITYCOUNT = 0 THEN GOTO CreateNewTable;

DROP TABLE .;

.IF ERRORCODE = 3807 THEN GOTO CreateNewTable; /* Table dropped by another process? */
.IF ERRORCODE > 0 THEN .QUIT ERRORCODE; /* Unexpected error */

.LABEL CreateNewTable;

CREATE . AS . WITH DATA AND STATISTICS;