Check if table exists in SQL Server

Question

I would like this to be the ultimate discussion on how to check if a table exists in SQL Server 2000/2005 using SQL Statements.

When you Google for the answer, you get so many different answers. Is there an official/backward and forward compatible way of doing it?

Here are two possible ways of doing it. Which one among the two is the standard/best way of doing it?

First way:

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 
           FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES 
           WHERE TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' 
           AND TABLE_NAME='mytablename') 
   SELECT 1 AS res ELSE SELECT 0 AS res;

Second way:

IF OBJECT_ID (N'mytablename', N'U') IS NOT NULL 
   SELECT 1 AS res ELSE SELECT 0 AS res;

MySQL provides the simple

SHOW TABLES LIKE '%tablename%'; 

statement. I am looking for something similar.

Answer 1

If this is to be the 'ultimate' discussion, then it should be noted that Larry Leonard's script can query a remote server as well if the servers are linked.

if exists (select * from REMOTE_SERVER.MyOtherDatabase.sys.tables where name = 'MyTable')
    print 'Exists'

Answer 2

We always use the OBJECT_ID style for as long as I remember

IF OBJECT_ID('*objectName*', 'U') IS NOT NULL 

Answer 3

Also note that if for any reason you need to check for a temporary table you can do this:

if OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#test') is not null
 --- temp table exists

Answer 4

IF OBJECT_ID('mytablename') IS NOT NULL 

Answer 5

IF EXISTS (   SELECT * FROM   dbo.sysobjects WHERE  id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.TableName') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsUserTable') = 1 )
BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM dbo.TableName;
END
GO

Answer 6

For queries like this it is always best to use an INFORMATION_SCHEMA view. These views are (mostly) standard across many different databases and rarely change from version to version.

To check if a table exists use:

IF (EXISTS (SELECT * 
                 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES 
                 WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'TheSchema' 
                 AND  TABLE_NAME = 'TheTable'))
BEGIN
    --Do Stuff
END