If table exists drop table then create it, if it does not exist just create it

Question

I'm stumped, I don't know how to go about doing this.

Basically I just want to create a table, but if it exists it needs to be dropped and re-created, not truncated, but if it doesn't exist just create it.

Would anyone be able to help?

Answer 1

Just put DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `tablename`; before your CREATE TABLE statement.

That statement drops the table if it exists but will not throw an error if it does not.

Answer 2

Just use DROP TABLE IF EXISTS:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `foo`;
CREATE TABLE `foo` ( ... );

Try searching the MySQL documentation first if you have any other problems.