DROP IF EXISTS in SQL Server 2016 (DIE)

Prior to SQL Server 2016, when we need to drop a SQL Object, it's the best practice to check whether the respective object exists or not. Otherwise, the operation will return in an error.

DROP TABLE [SomeTable]

If the object is not found, it will return the following error:

Hence, we need to change the syntax as:

IF EXISTS(SELECT 'x' FROM sys.objects AS O WHERE O.name = 'SomeTable' AND O.[type] = 'U')
    DROP TABLE [SomeTable]

--OR

IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.SomeTable','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE [SomeTable]  

In SQL Server 2016, there is an easier way to do this using comparatively less amount for coding.

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [SomeTable];
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS [SomeProcedure];

Even this can be used when dropping columns and constraints from a table.

ALTER TABLE [TableName] DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS [ConstraintName]
ALTER TABLE [TableName] DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS [TableName]

Example:

CREATE TABLE SomeTable(
    Id        INT
    ,Name    VARCHAR(10)        NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_SomeTable_Name] DEFAULT ('')
)

ALTER TABLE dbo.SomeTable
DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS [DF_SomeTable_Name]

ALTER TABLE dbo.SomeTable
DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS [Name]

The beauty of this functionality is that even the object does not exist, it will not fail and execution will continue.

Currently, the following objects can be dropped with the DIE functionality:

• ASSEMBLY
• VIEW
• DATABASE
• DEFAULT
• FUNCTION
• PROCEDURE
• INDEX
• AGGREGATE
• ROLE
• RULE
• SCHEMA
• SECURITY POLICY
• SEQUENCE
• SYNONYM
• TABLE
• TRIGGER
• TYPE
• USER
• VIEW

Hope this will be useful to you.