Detect if table exists

[Manish Hatwalne]

This should be easy, but I am unable to find it now.
How can I detect if a particular table exists or not in my DB (I am using
MySQL).

I cannot delete table, so I can't use drop if exists; but can I use count
(*) if exists, or sth similar? I am not much of a DB person.
Any pointers would be very useful.

TIA,
- Manish

[somkiat puisungnoen]

I think , you should be use some tool for manage MySQL DB such as MySQLFront, phpadmin ...


This for help.

MySQLFront
PHP myadmin

[Manish Hatwalne]

I didn't say I need to manage MySQL. I needed to detect in my code if te table existed. Anyway, I have found a way to do this with MetaData.

- Manish

[Surasak Leenapongpanit]

How can I detect if a particular table exists or not in my DB (I am using
MySQL).

mysql>show tables;

I cannot delete table, so I can't use drop if exists; but can I use count
(*) if exists, or sth similar?

Check your access privilege on the database.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I cannot delete table, so I can't use drop if exists; but can I use count
(*) if exists, or sth similar? I am not much of a DB person.

If you want to see the data within a table, make sure that you have the *select* privilege.

Nick

[Dirk Schreckmann]

Moving this to the JDBC forum...

[Julian Kennedy]

I think what Manish was after is something like:

if exists (select 1
           from   system_tables st    -- this is just a made-up name
           where  st.name = 'my_table')
  -- do some stuff

Manish, if so could you post the name of the useful MySQL data dictionary (metadata) table(s)?

Thanks

Jules