[java] Check if table exists

I have a desktop application with a database embedded in it. When I execute my program I need to check that specific table exists, or create it if not.

Given a Connection object named conn for my database, how could I check this?

    /**
 * Method that checks if all tables exist
 * If a table doesnt exist it creates the table
 */
public void checkTables() {
    try {
        startConn();// method that connects with mysql database
        String useDatabase = "USE " + getDatabase() + ";";
        stmt.executeUpdate(useDatabase);
        String[] tables = {"Patients", "Procedures", "Payments", "Procedurables"};//thats table names that I need to create if not exists
        DatabaseMetaData metadata = conn.getMetaData();

        for(int i=0; i< tables.length; i++) {
            ResultSet rs = metadata.getTables(null, null, tables[i], null);
            if(!rs.next()) {
                createTable(tables[i]);
                System.out.println("Table " + tables[i] + " created");
            }
        }
    } catch(SQLException e) {
        System.out.println("checkTables() " + e.getMessage());
    }
    closeConn();// Close connection with mysql database
}

I don't actually find any of the presented solutions here to be fully complete so I'll add my own. Nothing new here. You can stitch this together from the other presented solutions plus various comments.

There are at least two things you'll have to make sure:

1. Make sure you pass the table name to the getTables() method, rather than passing a null value. In the first case you let the database server filter the result for you, in the second you request a list of all tables from the server and then filter the list locally. The former is much faster if you are only searching for a single table.

2. Make sure to check the table name from the resultset with an equals match. The reason is that the getTables() does pattern matching on the query for the table and the _ character is a wildcard in SQL. Suppose you are checking for the existence of a table named EMPLOYEE_SALARY. You'll then get a match on EMPLOYEESSALARY too which is not what you want.

Ohh, and do remember to close those resultsets. Since Java 7 you would want to use a try-with-resources statement for that.

Here's a complete solution:

public static boolean tableExist(Connection conn, String tableName) throws SQLException {
    boolean tExists = false;
    try (ResultSet rs = conn.getMetaData().getTables(null, null, tableName, null)) {
        while (rs.next()) { 
            String tName = rs.getString("TABLE_NAME");
            if (tName != null && tName.equals(tableName)) {
                tExists = true;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return tExists;
}

You may want to consider what you pass as the types parameter (4th parameter) on your getTables() call. Normally I would just leave at null because you don't want to restrict yourself. A VIEW is as good as a TABLE, right? These days many databases allow you to update through a VIEW so restricting yourself to only TABLE type is in most cases not the way to go. YMMV.

DatabaseMetaData dbm = con.getMetaData();
// check if "employee" table is there
ResultSet tables = dbm.getTables(null, null, "employee", null);
if (tables.next()) {
  // Table exists
}
else {
  // Table does not exist
}

If using jruby, here is a code snippet to return an array of all tables in a db.

require "rubygems"
require "jdbc/mysql"
Jdbc::MySQL.load_driver
require "java"

def get_database_tables(connection, db_name)
  md = connection.get_meta_data
  rs = md.get_tables(db_name, nil, '%',["TABLE"])

  tables = []
  count = 0
  while rs.next
    tables << rs.get_string(3)
  end #while
  return tables
end

Adding to Gaby's post, my jdbc getTables() for Oracle 10g requires all caps to work:

"employee" -> "EMPLOYEE"

Otherwise I would get an exception:

java.sql.SqlExcepcion exhausted resultset

(even though "employee" is in the schema)