Is it safe to run 'create table ...' multiple times?

Question

I have a parser that parses XML file into SQLite database, and the current implementation generates the 'create table xyz ...' even the table is already existed.

• Is this OK? I mean, is this OK to run 'create table' even when the table exists in db?
• If not, is there easy way to check the names of tables (and its contents) that SQLite db has?

Answer 1

What you are searching for is CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS and the FAQ entry How do I list all tables/indices contained in an SQLite database.

Creating a table without the "IF NOT EXISTS" option will lead to an error.

Answer 2

You can DROP TABLE before CREATE TABLE, you can safety DROP TABLE who don't exists then you don't must checking for TABLE existence before DROP.

Answer 3

SQLite has a "IF NOT EXISTS" clause so that you can throw a "CREATE TABLE" at the database and it will ignore it if it already exists. For example:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS mytable ( id INTEGER );

The URL to the documentation about this is at: http://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html