[mysql] How to check if mysql database exists

Is it possible to check if a (MySQL) database exists after having made a connection.

I know how to check if a table exists in a DB, but I need to check if the DB exists. If not I have to call another piece of code to create it and populate it.

I know this all sounds somewhat inelegant - this is a quick and dirty app.

Following solution worked for me:

mysql -u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PASSWORD} \
-s -N -e "SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME='${MYSQL_DATABASE}'"

Using the INFORMATION_SCHEMA or show databases is not reliable when you do not have enough permissions to see the database. It will seem that the DB does not exist when you just don't have access to it. The creation would then fail afterwards. Another way to have a more precise check is to use the output of the use command, even though I do not know how solid this approach could be (text output change in future versions / other languages...) so be warned.

CHECK=$(mysql -sNe "use DB_NAME" 2>&1)
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  # database exists and is accessible
elif [ ! -z "$(echo $CHECK | grep 'Unknown database')" ]; then
  # database does not exist
elif [ ! -z "$(echo $CHECK | grep 'Access denied')" ]; then
  # cannot tell if database exists (not enough permissions)"
else
  # unexpected output
fi

For those who use php with mysqli then this is my solution. I know the answer has already been answered, but I thought it would be helpful to have the answer as a mysqli prepared statement too.

$db = new mysqli('localhost',username,password);
$database="somedatabase";
$query="SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME=?";
$stmt = $db->prepare($query);
$stmt->bind_param('s',$database);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($data);
if($stmt->fetch())
{
    echo "Database exists.";
}
else
{
    echo"Database does not exist!!!";
}
$stmt->close();

From the shell like bash

if [[ ! -z "`mysql -qfsBe "SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME='db'" 2>&1`" ]];
then
  echo "DATABASE ALREADY EXISTS"
else
  echo "DATABASE DOES NOT EXIST"
fi

IF EXISTS (SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = N'YourDatabaseName')
BEGIN    
    -- Database exists, so do your stuff here.
END

If you are using MSSQL instead of MySQL, see this answer from a similar thread.

Here's my way of doing it inside a bash script:

#!/bin/sh

DATABASE_USER=*****
DATABASE_PWD=*****
DATABASE_NAME=my_database

if mysql -u$DATABASE_USER -p$DATABASE_PWD -e "use $DATABASE_NAME";
then
echo "Database $DATABASE_NAME already exists. Exiting."
exit
else
echo Create database
mysql -u$DATABASE_USER -p$DATABASE_PWD -e "CREATE DATABASE $DATABASE_NAME"
fi

Using bash:

if [ "`mysql -u'USER' -p'PASSWORD' -se'USE $DATABASE_NAME;' 2>&1`" == "" ]; then
    echo $DATABASE_NAME exist
else
    echo $DATABASE_NAME doesn't exist
fi

With this Script you can get Yes or No database exists, in case it does not exist it does not throw Exception.

SELECT 
    IF(EXISTS( SELECT 
                SCHEMA_NAME
            FROM
                INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
            WHERE
                SCHEMA_NAME = 'DbName'),
        'Yes',
        'No')  as exist

Here is a bash function for checking if a database exists:

function does_db_exist {
  local db="${1}"

  local output=$(mysql -s -N -e "SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata WHERE schema_name = '${db}'" information_schema)
  if [[ -z "${output}" ]]; then
    return 1 # does not exist
  else
    return 0 # exists
  fi
}           

Another alternative is to just try to use the database. Note that this checks permission as well:

if mysql "${db}" >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null
then
  echo "${db} exists (and I have permission to access it)"
else
  echo "${db} does not exist (or I do not have permission to access it)"
fi

If you are looking for a php script see below.

$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
  die('Not connected : ' . mysql_error());
}

// make foo the current db
$db_selected = mysql_select_db('foo', $link);
if (!$db_selected) {
  die ('Cannot use foo : ' . mysql_error());
}

Long winded and convoluted (but bear with me!), here is a class system I made to check if a DB exists and also to create the tables required:

<?php
class Table
{
    public static function Script()
    {
        return "
            CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users` ( `id` INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT );

        ";
    }
}

class Install
{
    #region Private constructor
    private static $link;
    private function __construct()
    {
        static::$link = new mysqli();
        static::$link->real_connect("localhost", "username", "password");
    }
    #endregion

    #region Instantiator
    private static $instance;
    public static function Instance()
    {
        static::$instance = (null === static::$instance ? new self() : static::$instance);
        return static::$instance;
    }
    #endregion

    #region Start Install
    private static $installed;
    public function Start()
    {
        var_dump(static::$installed);
        if (!static::$installed)
        {
            if (!static::$link->select_db("en"))
            {
                static::$link->query("CREATE DATABASE `en`;")? $die = false: $die = true;
                if ($die)
                    return false;
                static::$link->select_db("en");
            }
            else
            {
                static::$link->select_db("en");          
            }
            return static::$installed = static::DatabaseMade();  
        }
        else
        {
            return static::$installed;
        }
    }
    #endregion

    #region Table creator
    private static function CreateTables()
    {
        $tablescript = Table::Script();
        return static::$link->multi_query($tablescript) ? true : false;
    }
    #endregion

    private static function DatabaseMade()
    {
        $created = static::CreateTables();
        if ($created)
        {
            static::$installed = true;
        }
        else
        {
            static::$installed = false;
        }
        return $created;
    }
}

In this you can replace the database name en with any database name you like and also change the creator script to anything at all and (hopefully!) it won't break it. If anyone can improve this, let me know!

Note
If you don't use Visual Studio with PHP tools, don't worry about the regions, they are they for code folding :P

A great way to check if a database exists in PHP is:

$mysql = mysql_connect("<your host>", "root", "");

if (mysql_select_db($mysql, '<your db name>')) {
    echo "Database exists";
} else {
    echo "Database does not exist";
}

That is the method that I always use.

CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS `demodb` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 ;

A simple way to check if a database exists is:

SHOW DATABASES LIKE 'dbname';

If database with the name 'dbname' doesn't exist, you get an empty set. If it does exist, you get one row.

Rails Code:

ruby-1.9.2-p290 :099 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("USE INFORMATION_SCHEMA")

ruby-1.9.2-p290 :099 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM         INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'entos_development'").to_a
SQL (0.2ms) SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME =               'entos_development'
=> [["entos_development"]] 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :100 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM              INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'entos_development1'").to_a
SQL (0.3ms) SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME =            'entos_development1'
=> []

=> entos_development exist , entos_development1 not exist

A very simple BASH-one-liner:

mysqlshow | grep dbname

Golang solution

create a test package and add:

import "database/sql"

// testing database creation
func TestCreate(t *testing.T){
    Createdb("*Testdb") // This just calls the **sql.DB obect *Testdb 
    db,err := sql.Open("mysql", "root:root@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/*Testdb")
    if err != nil{
        panic(err)
    }
    defer db.Close()
    _, err = db.Exec("USE *Testdb")
    if err != nil{
        t.Error("Database not Created")
    }

} 

Be careful when checking for existence with a like statement!

If in a series of unfortunate events your variable ends up being empty, and you end up executing this:

SHOW DATABASES like '' -- dangerous!

It will return ALL databases, thus telling the calling script that it exists since some rows were returned.

It's much safer and better practice to use an "=" equal sign to test for existence.

The correct and safe way to test for existence should be:

SHOW DATABASES WHERE `database` = 'xxxxx' -- safe way to test for existence

Note that you have to wrap the column name database with backticks, it can't use relaxed syntax in this case.

This way, if the code creating the variable 'xxxxx' returned blank, then SHOW DATABASES will not return ALL databases, but will return an empty set.

Another php solution, but with PDO:

<?php
try {
   $pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=dbname', 'root', 'password');
   echo 'table dbname exists...';
}
catch (PDOException $e) {
   die('dbname not found...');
}

I am using simply the following query:

"USE 'DBname'"

Then check if the result is FALSE. Otherwise, there might be an access denied error, but I cannot know that. So, in case of privileges involved, one can use:

"SHOW DATABASES LIKE 'DBname'"

as already mentioned earlier.

SELECT IF('database_name' IN(SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA), 1, 0) AS found;