Question

For my application that uses an Oracle 8 DB, I am providing an SQL script to setup stuff like triggers, sequences etc., which can be copied and pasted into SQL*Plus. I would like the script to not stop with an error if a sequence that I am trying to create already exists. For a Trigger this can easily be done using “create or replace trigger …”, but for a sequence this does not work. I also tried “”if not exists mysequence then create sequence …” but it did not too. Is there some alternative?

Alternatively, if this is not possible, is there a way to do a “drop sequence mysequence” without SQL*Plus aborting the script if mysequence does not exist?

Answer 1

If you’re sure the script will always run under SQL*Plus, you can bracket the CREATE SEQUENCE statements with a directive to continue on error:

WHENEVER SQLERROR CONTINUE
-- create sequences here, ignoring errors
WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE

Be aware if there are other errors (permission problems, syntax failures, etc.) in the create sequence statements they will be ignored