Question

This seems to be a simple problem, but after a while of searching I can’t figure out the answer.

I currently have a MySQL table in my local database used by a webapp, and them same table on a database in a remote server. Right now, I’m using the CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS command through PHP to create the table on the databases:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (  
  `id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,  
  `username` varchar(18) NOT NULL,  
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)  
) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=2 ;

However, let’s say I make a modification to the local database, adding a collumn, for example. It would be really annoying to have to go and change the remote database every time I change the local one. Is there an easier way to run code to create a table if it doesn’t exist, and if it does exist, make sure it’s structure matches that of the create table structure?

Here’s an example, to make what I’m trying to convey a little clearer. Let’s say on the local database I have a users table, and I decide that in my webapp I want to have another collumn, password. So I go to the local database and add a password collumn. Is there PHP/MySQL code I can run to check if the users table exists, and if it does, make sure it has a password collumn, and if not, add it?

Answer 1

To directly answer your question you can create temporary procedures to detect field existence like using a query like this:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM table_name LIKE 'column_name';

However in the real world, database changes are general rolled into three scripts. A create script and two deltas one up and one down. Then the database is versioned so that you know at what state the database is in at any given time.