Oracle, drop table if it exists AND empty - oracle

Question

I need to drop an Oracle table only if it 1) exists AND 2) Is NOT Empty
I wrote this code but if the table does not exist the code does not work:
DECLARE
rec_cnt1 NUMBER :=0;
rec_cnt2 NUMBER :=0;
BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*) INTO rec_cnt1 FROM ALL_TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyTable';
SELECT num_rows INTO rec_cnt2 FROM USER_TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyTable';
IF rec_cnt1 = 1 THEN
BEGIN
IF rec_cnt2 < 1 THEN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE MyTable cascade constraints';
END IF;
END;
END IF;
END;
/
What am I doing wrong? Please help.
Many thanks in advance

Answer 1

If you want to drop a table if it exists and empty(as the title of the question states) you could do this as follows:
create or replace procedure DropTableIfEmpty(p_tab_name varchar2)
is
l_tab_not_exists exception;
pragma exception_init(l_tab_not_exists, -942);
l_is_empty number;
l_query varchar2(1000);
l_table_name varchar2(32);
begin
l_table_name := dbms_assert.simple_sql_name(p_tab_name);
l_query := 'select count(*)
from ' || l_table_name ||
' where rownum = 1';
execute immediate l_query
into l_is_empty;
if l_is_empty = 0
then
execute immediate 'drop table ' || l_table_name;
dbms_output.put_line('Table "'|| p_tab_name ||'" has been dropped');
else
dbms_output.put_line('Table "'|| p_tab_name ||'" exists and is not empty');
end if;
exception
when l_tab_not_exists
then dbms_output.put_line('Table "'|| p_tab_name ||'" does not exist');
end;
When you are trying to drop a table, or query a table, which does not exist, Oracle will raise ORA-00942 exception and execution of a pl/sql block halts. We use pragma exception_init statement to associate ORA-00942 exception with our locally defined exception l_tab_not_exists in order to handle it appropriately.
Test case:
SQL> exec droptableifempty('tb_test'); -- tb_test table does not exists
Table "tb_test" does not exist
SQL> create table tb_test(
2 col number
3 );
table TB_TEST created.
SQL> exec droptableifempty('tb_test');
Table "tb_test" has been dropped
As a side note. Before querying num_rows column of [dba][all][user]_tables in order to determine number of rows a table has, you need to gather table statistic by executing dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user, '<<table_name>>');, otherwise you wont get the actual number of rows.

Answer 2

In PL/SQL it is 'normal' to catch the exception.
If it is the correct exception then continue with the next part of your code.
DECLARE
rec_cnt1 NUMBER :=0;
rec_cnt2 NUMBER :=0;
BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*) INTO rec_cnt1 FROM ALL_TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyTable';
SELECT num_rows INTO rec_cnt2 FROM USER_TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyTable';
IF rec_cnt1 = 1 THEN
BEGIN
IF rec_cnt2 < 1 THEN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE MyTable cascade constraints';
END IF;
END;
END IF;
EXCEPTION
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('OH DEAR AN EXCEPTION WAS THROWN DUE TO' || SQLERRM);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('THE ORACLE CODE IS ' || SQLCODE);
-- if it is the oracle code for no such table, or no data selected
-- everything is fine.
END;

Answer 3

Of course it won't work if the table doesn't exist. Your second select would get a "No data found" exception, and you're not doing any exception handling. At least you should move the second select inside the first IF block. Best to add exception handling.

Answer 4

here is an easy way to solve this problem:
BEGIN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE [sssss]';
EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN NULL;
END;