Oracle DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Alternatives

The very useful DROP TABLE IF EXISTS syntax was finally introduced in Oracle Database – Oracle Database 23c to be precise. This syntax allows us to run a DROP TABLE statement without getting an error if the table doesn’t exist.

Earlier versions of Oracle don’t support the IF EXISTS clause. Therefore, if we want to avoid any nasty errors resulting from trying to drop a non-existent table, we need to do a bit of extra work.

Below are three options for dropping a table if it exists in Oracle.

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