ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS in SQLite

Question

We\'ve recently had the need to add columns to a few of our existing SQLite database tables. This can be done with ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN. Of course, if the table has alre

Answer 1

threre is a method of PRAGMA is table_info(table_name), it returns all the information of table.

Here is implementation how to use it for check column exists or not,

    public boolean isColumnExists (String table, String column) {
         boolean isExists = false
         Cursor cursor;
         try {           
            cursor = db.rawQuery("PRAGMA table_info("+ table +")", null);
            if (cursor != null) {
                while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
                    String name = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("name"));
                    if (column.equalsIgnoreCase(name)) {
                        isExists = true;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }

         } finally {
            if (cursor != null && !cursor.isClose()) 
               cursor.close();
         }
         return isExists;
    }

You can also use this query without using loop,

cursor = db.rawQuery("PRAGMA table_info("+ table +") where name = " + column, null);