Oracle: If Table Exists

Question

I\'m writing some migration scripts for an Oracle database, and was hoping Oracle had something similar to MySQL\'s IF EXISTS construct.

Specifically, w

Answer 1

just wanted to post a full code that will create a table and drop it if it already exists using Jeffrey's code (kudos to him, not me!).

BEGIN
    BEGIN
         EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE tablename';
    EXCEPTION
         WHEN OTHERS THEN
                IF SQLCODE != -942 THEN
                     RAISE;
                END IF;
    END;

    EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'CREATE TABLE tablename AS SELECT * FROM sourcetable WHERE 1=0';

END;

Answer 2

I prefer following economic solution

BEGIN
    FOR i IN (SELECT NULL FROM USER_OBJECTS WHERE OBJECT_TYPE = 'TABLE' AND OBJECT_NAME = 'TABLE_NAME') LOOP
            EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE TABLE_NAME';
    END LOOP;
END;

Answer 3

With SQL*PLUS you can also use the WHENEVER SQLERROR command:

WHENEVER SQLERROR CONTINUE NONE
DROP TABLE TABLE_NAME;

WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
DROP TABLE TABLE_NAME;

With CONTINUE NONE an error is reported, but the script will continue. With EXIT SQL.SQLCODE the script will be terminated in the case of an error.

see also: WHENEVER SQLERROR Docs

Answer 4

Sadly no, there is no such thing as drop if exists, or CREATE IF NOT EXIST

You could write a plsql script to include the logic there.

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B12037_01/server.101/b10759/statements_9003.htm

I'm not much into Oracle Syntax, but i think @Erich's script would be something like this.

declare 
cant integer
begin
select into cant count(*) from dba_tables where table_name='Table_name';
if count>0 then
BEGIN
    DROP TABLE tableName;
END IF;
END;

Answer 5

The best and most efficient way is to catch the "table not found" exception: this avoids the overhead of checking if the table exists twice; and doesn't suffer from the problem that if the DROP fails for some other reason (that might be important) the exception is still raised to the caller:

BEGIN
   EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE ' || table_name;
EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS THEN
      IF SQLCODE != -942 THEN
         RAISE;
      END IF;
END;

ADDENDUM For reference, here are the equivalent blocks for other object types:

Sequence

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SEQUENCE ' || sequence_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -2289 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

View

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP VIEW ' || view_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -942 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Trigger

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TRIGGER ' || trigger_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -4080 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Index

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP INDEX ' || index_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -1418 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Column

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'ALTER TABLE ' || table_name
                || ' DROP COLUMN ' || column_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -904 AND SQLCODE != -942 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Database Link

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP DATABASE LINK ' || dblink_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -2024 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Materialized View

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW ' || mview_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -12003 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Type

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TYPE ' || type_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -4043 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Constraint

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'ALTER TABLE ' || table_name
            || ' DROP CONSTRAINT ' || constraint_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -2443 AND SQLCODE != -942 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Scheduler Job

BEGIN
  DBMS_SCHEDULER.drop_job(job_name);
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -27475 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

User / Schema

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP USER ' || user_name;
  /* you may or may not want to add CASCADE */
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -1918 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Package

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP PACKAGE ' || package_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -4043 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Procedure

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP PROCEDURE ' || procedure_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -4043 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Function

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP FUNCTION ' || function_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -4043 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Tablespace

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLESPACE' || tablespace_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -959 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Synonym

BEGIN
  EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SYNONYM ' || synonym_name;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    IF SQLCODE != -1434 THEN
      RAISE;
    END IF;
END;

Answer 6

I prefer to specify the table and the schema owner.

Watch out for case sensitivity as well. (see "upper" clause below).

I threw a couple of different objects in to show that is can be used in places besides TABLEs.

.............

declare
   v_counter int;
begin
 select count(*) into v_counter from dba_users where upper(username)=upper('UserSchema01');
   if v_counter > 0 then
      execute immediate 'DROP USER UserSchema01 CASCADE';
   end if; 
end;
/



CREATE USER UserSchema01 IDENTIFIED BY pa$$word
  DEFAULT TABLESPACE users
  TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp
  QUOTA UNLIMITED ON users;

grant create session to UserSchema01;  

And a TABLE example:

declare
   v_counter int;
begin
 select count(*) into v_counter from all_tables where upper(TABLE_NAME)=upper('ORDERS') and upper(OWNER)=upper('UserSchema01');
   if v_counter > 0 then
      execute immediate 'DROP TABLE UserSchema01.ORDERS';
   end if; 
end;
/