Check table exist or not before create it in Oracle

Question

Trying to check is table exist before create in Oracle. Search for most of the post from Stackoverflow and others too. Find some query but it didn\'t work for me.

Answer 1

My solution is just compilation of best ideas in thread, with a little improvement. I use both dedicated procedure (@Tomasz Borowiec) to facilitate reuse, and exception handling (@Tobias Twardon) to reduce code and to get rid of redundant table name in procedure.

DECLARE

    PROCEDURE create_table_if_doesnt_exist(
        p_create_table_query VARCHAR2
    ) IS
    BEGIN
        EXECUTE IMMEDIATE p_create_table_query;
    EXCEPTION
        WHEN OTHERS THEN
        -- suppresses "name is already being used" exception
        IF SQLCODE = -955 THEN
            NULL; 
        END IF;
    END;

BEGIN
    create_table_if_doesnt_exist('
        CREATE TABLE "MY_TABLE" (
            "ID" NUMBER(19) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
            "TEXT" VARCHAR2(4000),
            "MOD_TIME" TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
        )
    ');
END;
/