How to check for the existence of a DB?

Question

I am wondering if there is an elegant way to check for the existence of a DB? In brief, how do test the connection of a db connection string?

Thanks

Answer 1

try

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.databases WHERE [name] = @name)
   CREATE DATABASE @name;
GO

or

IF db_id(@name) IS NOT NULL
   CREATE DATABASE @name;
GO

or SqlConnection.ChangeDatabase(String). I think it could use less sql server resources then new connection attempt.