MySQL, Check if a column exists in a table with SQL

Question

I am trying to write a query that will check if a specific table in MySQL has a specific column, and if not — create it. Otherwise do nothing. This is really an easy procedure in any enterprise-class database, yet MySQL seems to be an exception.

I thought somethig like

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
           WHERE TABLE_NAME='prefix_topic' AND column_name='topic_last_update') 
BEGIN 
ALTER TABLE `prefix_topic` ADD `topic_last_update` DATETIME NOT NULL;
UPDATE `prefix_topic` SET `topic_last_update` = `topic_date_add`;
END;

would work, but it fails badly. Is there a way?

Answer 1

Select just column_name from information schema and put the result of this query into variable. Then test the variable to decide if table needs alteration or not.

P.S. Don't foget to specify TABLE_SCHEMA for COLUMNS table as well.