How can I check if a MySQL table exists with PHP?

Question

As simple in theory as it sounds I\'ve done a fair amount of research and am having trouble figuring this out.

How can I check if a MySQL table exists and if it does

Answer 1

You can use many different queries to check if a table exists. Below is a comparison between several:

mysql_query('select 1 from `table_name` group by 1'); or  
mysql_query('select count(*) from `table_name`');

mysql_query("DESCRIBE `table_name`");  
70000   rows: 24ms  
1000000 rows: 24ms  
5000000 rows: 24ms

mysql_query('select 1 from `table_name`');  
70000   rows: 19ms  
1000000 rows: 23ms  
5000000 rows: 29ms

mysql_query('select 1 from `table_name` group by 1'); or  
mysql_query('select count(*) from `table_name`');  
70000   rows: 18ms  
1000000 rows: 18ms  
5000000 rows: 18ms  

These benchmarks are only averages: