Using ALTER to drop a column if it exists in MySQL

Question

How can ALTER be used to drop a column in a MySQL table if that column exists?

I know I can use ALTER TABLE my_table DROP COLUMN my_column, but that wi

Answer 1

You can use this script, use your column, schema and table name

 IF EXISTS (SELECT *
                         FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
                         WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'TableName' AND COLUMN_NAME = 'ColumnName' 
                                             AND TABLE_SCHEMA = SchemaName)
    BEGIN
       ALTER TABLE TableName DROP COLUMN ColumnName;
    END;

Answer 2

Chase Seibert's answer works, but I'd add that if you have several schemata you want to alter the SELECT thus:

select * from information_schema.columns where table_schema in (select schema()) and table_name=...