Hi all, pretty simple question today. Don't know why it's never come up for me before. All i need is to query in a database to find out if a table exists. Maybe im just missing a simple command from my spotty self-taught SQL knowledge.

Anyway, i wrote this little function which assumes two things:

  • the db handle has the RaiseError flag set
  • the db handle is pointing at the desired database
    • sub does_table_exist {
    my ($db_handle, $table_name) = @_;

    my $query_handle = $db_handle->prepare("DESC $table_name");

    eval {
        $query_handle->execute();
    };
    return ! $@;
}

    [download]
    This works, but seems pretty convoluted for what im doing. Im sure theres a better way, and that someone here knows it. Thanks!
    I use the most powerful debugger available: print!

    In reply to Checking for DB table existence using DBI/DBD by shemp

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