Help finding out if table exists in mysql

In a Perl CGI script working with Mysql, I am trying to write:

if a table does not exist, create it;

How do I find out if a table exists? What value can I capture for my if statement?

Try using SELECT to return anything. If $rv->rows = 0 then take it as red that it doesn't exist and create it.

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Teresag:
In a Perl CGI script working with Mysql, I am trying to write:

if a table does not exist, create it;

How do I find out if a table exists? What value can I capture for my if statement?[/quote]



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http://www.hawkerdesign.com
Craig Hawker,
Chief Designer

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>Thank You, I'll give it a try.



[/B][/quote]

That will tell you if a table has any rows, but not if the table exists. I would use SHOW TABLES to get the list of tables, then iterate over that list to see if the table name I am looking for exists.

If you see that the row count = 0, but the table exists with 0 rows, you will get an error if/when you try to CREATE that table.

-TM

In the end, I did the following:

#Check if table exists, if not then create it
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM office") | | die "Can't prepare a statement: $DBI::errstr";

my $rv = $sth->execute; #if table doesn't exist undef is returned
if($rv eq undef)
{
$sth = $dbh->do(q(
CREATE TABLE ....
}

Once I found out that if the table doesn't exist then undefined is returned, then the following if statement worked successfully.
Thank you for your thoughts on this, I will keep them handy for future use.