Checking if a postgresql table exists under python (and probably Psycopg2)

Question

How can I determine if a table exists using the Psycopg2 Python library? I want a true or false boolean.

Answer 1

I don't know the psycopg2 lib specifically, but the following query can be used to check for existence of a table:

SELECT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM information_schema.tables 
              WHERE table_catalog='DB_NAME' AND 
                    table_schema='public' AND 
                    table_name='TABLE_NAME');

The advantage of using information_schema over selecting directly from the pg_* tables is some degree of portability of the query.