How to check if a particular database in mysql already exists using java

Question

I am new in JDBC and I wanted to find out if there is a way to check if a particular database already exists in MySQL.

Let's say I wanted to create a database named students, if the students database is already created in MySQL an error message in eclipse would state that this students database already exists. However what I wanted to do is to create a boolean method to check if students database already exists. If it exists then boolean method would return false otherwise its true then I can create students database. How do I do these in Java? Are there any methods in JDBC that does this or do I need to code it from scratch?

EDIT 2

I followed mguymons suggestion and this is what I came up

public boolean checkDBExists(String dbName){

    try {
        Class.forName(JDBCDriver); //Register JDBC Driver
        
        System.out.println("Creating a connection...");
        conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DBURL, USER, PASS); //Open a connection
    
        ResultSet resultSet = conn.getMetaData().getCatalogs();
        
        while (resultSet.next()) {
        
          String databaseName = resultSet.getString(1);
            if(databaseName.equals(dbName)){
                return true;
            }
        }
        resultSet.close();

    }
    catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    
    return false;
}

Possible duplicate: stackoverflow.com/questions/838978/… , I doubt there is an API method for this, do the same as in the linked post. — zeller
I don't know much about mysql but I have seen this answer before its just that its not implemented in java its in php i think... but based on kirtan's answer can I placed that SQL statement in a string and then pass it as an argument of Statement? Btw I don't think this is also a duplicate because the link you showed me is asking in mysql. I am looking for a java implementation if there is any. — dimas
You can call the sql query in the accepted answer in a prepared statement... — zeller
Surprise, there is a JDBC API for this! I think the problem is the confusing name of getCatalogs() which returns the database names. — mguymon
In the solution you added in your question, remove the boolean exists = false; line, replace the exists = true; line by return true; and the return exists; line by return false;. It's a more common way to do ;) — sp00m

mguymon mguymon · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13T21:04:09

You can get that info from a JDBC Connection using DatabaseMetaData#getCatalogs, here is an example of getting the Catalogs, aka Database names

// Connection connection = <your java.sql.Connection>
ResultSet resultSet = connection.getMetaData().getCatalogs();

//iterate each catalog in the ResultSet
while (resultSet.next()) {
  // Get the database name, which is at position 1
  String databaseName = resultSet.getString(1);
}
resultSet.close();

How to check if a particular database in mysql already exists using java

EDIT 2

4 Answers