Question

Is there a way to check if a table exists without selecting and checking values from it?

That is, I know I can go SELECT testcol FROM testtable and check the count of fields returned, but it seems there must be a more direct / elegant way to do it.

Answer 1

If you want to be correct, use INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

SELECT * 
FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = 'yourdb' 
    AND table_name = 'testtable'
LIMIT 1;

Alternatively, you can use SHOW TABLES

SHOW TABLES LIKE 'yourtable';

If there is a row in the resultset, table exists.