How to check if the database exists or not in rails before doing a rake db:setup

Question

How to check if the database exists or not in rails before doing a rake db:setup?

I would like to check if a database already exists before a db:create is being done

Answer 1

Here is a method that checks if the database already exists:

def database_exists?
  ActiveRecord::Base.connection
rescue ActiveRecord::NoDatabaseError
  false
else
  true
end

References

• ActiveRecord::Base.connection
• ActiveRecord::NoDatabaseError