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

Using the Information Schema is the SQL Standard way to do it, so it should be used by all databases that support it.

Answer 2

Run this query to check if the table exists in the database:

IF(SELECT TABLE_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES where TABLE_NAME = 'YourTableName') IS NOT NULL
PRINT 'Table Exists';

Answer 3

i taking here creating a view as example.

Because ALTER/CREATE commands can't be within BEGIN/END blocks. You need to test for existence and the drop it before doing a create

IF Object_ID('TestView') IS NOT NULL
DROP VIEW TestView

GO

CREATE VIEW TestView
   as
   . . .

GO

If you are woried about the permissions being lost you can script the GRANT statements as well and re-run those at the end.

You could wrap the create/alter into a string and do an EXEC - that might get ugly for large views

DECLARE @SQL as varchar(4000)

-- set to body of view
SET @SQL = 'SELECT X, Y, Z FROM TABLE' 

IF Object_ID('TestView') IS NULL
    SET @SQL = 'CREATE VIEW TestView AS ' + @SQL
ELSE    
    SET @SQL = 'ALTER VIEW TestView AS ' + @SQL

Answer 4

Something important to know for anybody who hasn't found their solution yet: SQL server != MYSQL. If you want to do it with MYSQL, it is quite simple

    $sql = "SELECT 1 FROM `db_name`.`table_name` LIMIT 1;";
    $result = mysql_query($sql);
    if( $result == false )
        echo "table DOES NOT EXIST";
    else
        echo "table exists";

Posting this here because it's the top hit at Google.

Answer 5

IF EXISTS 
(
    SELECT   * 
    FROM     sys.objects 
    WHERE    object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[Mapping_APCToFANavigator]') 
             AND 
             type in (N'U')
)
BEGIN

    -- Do whatever you need to here.

END

Here in the above code, the table name is Mapping_APCToFANavigator.

Answer 6

IF EXISTS (   SELECT * FROM   dbo.sysobjects WHERE  id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.TableName') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsUserTable') = 1 )
BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM dbo.TableName;
END
GO