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 wanted to mention one situation where it would probably be a little easier to use the OBJECT_ID method. The INFORMATION_SCHEMA views are objects under each database-

The information schema views are defined in a special schema named INFORMATION_SCHEMA. This schema is contained in each database.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186778.aspx

Therefore all tables you access using

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 
           FROM [database].INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES 
           WHERE TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' 
           AND TABLE_NAME='mytablename') 
   SELECT 1 AS res ELSE SELECT 0 AS res;

will only reflect what is in [database]. If you wanted to check if tables in another database exist, without dynamically changing the [database] each time, OBJECT_ID will let you do this out of the box. Ex-

IF OBJECT_ID (N'db1.schema.table1', N'U') IS NOT NULL 
   SELECT 1 AS res ELSE SELECT 0 AS res;

works just as well as

IF OBJECT_ID (N'db2.schema.table1', N'U') IS NOT NULL 
   SELECT 1 AS res ELSE SELECT 0 AS res;

SQL SERVER 2016 Edit:

Starting with 2016, Microsoft simplified the ability to check for non-existent objects prior to dropping, by adding the if exists keywords to drop statements. For example,

drop table if exists mytablename

will do the same thing as OBJECT_ID / INFORMATION_SCHEMA wrappers, in 1 line of code.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/11/03/drop-if-exists-new-thing-in-sql-server-2016/

Answer 2

You can use this :

     IF OBJECT_ID (N'dbo.T', N'U') IS NOT NULL 
        BEGIN 
            print 'deleted table';
            drop table t 
        END
     else 
        begin 
            print 'table not found' 
        end

 Create table t (id int identity(1,1) not null, name varchar(30) not null, lastname varchar(25) null)
 insert into t( name, lastname) values('john','doe');
 insert into t( name, lastname) values('rose',NULL);

 Select * from t
1   john    doe
2   rose    NULL

 -- clean
 drop table t

Answer 3

---

-- -- create procedure to check if a table exists

---

DELIMITER $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `checkIfTableExists`;

CREATE PROCEDURE checkIfTableExists(
    IN databaseName CHAR(255),
    IN tableName CHAR(255),
    OUT boolExistsOrNot CHAR(40)
)

  BEGIN
      SELECT count(*) INTO boolExistsOrNot FROM information_schema.TABLES
      WHERE (TABLE_SCHEMA = databaseName)
      AND (TABLE_NAME = tableName);
  END $$

DELIMITER ;

---

-- -- how to use : check if table migrations exists

---

 CALL checkIfTableExists('muDbName', 'migrations', @output);

Answer 4

IF OBJECT_ID('mytablename') IS NOT NULL 

Answer 5

IF EXISTS (
SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE 
TABLE_CATALOG = 'Database Name' and
TABLE_NAME = 'Table Name' and 
TABLE_SCHEMA = 'Schema Name') -- Database and Schema name in where statement can be deleted

BEGIN
--TABLE EXISTS
END

ELSE BEGIN
--TABLE DOES NOT EXISTS
END

Answer 6

If this is to be the 'ultimate' discussion, then it should be noted that Larry Leonard's script can query a remote server as well if the servers are linked.

if exists (select * from REMOTE_SERVER.MyOtherDatabase.sys.tables where name = 'MyTable')
    print 'Exists'