"IF EXIST" equivalent sought!

[boolean]

Greetings,

I need to drop a couple of tables from the dictionary, and I know that I need to use:

DROP TABLE <TABLENAME> IN DICTIONARY

but then, I need to drop the table only if it exists.

Essentially I am making a .SQL file that would be run using the PSQL ODBC driver, and if the above statement is run for non-existing tables, an error is bombed.
So I would like to execute the SQL query conditionally.
I know that I can do this using a simple 'IF EXISTS' condition in Microsoft SQL, but the equivalent doesnt seem to be available with PSQL.

I did unearth the:

SELECT * FROM Person p WHERE EXISTS
(SELECT * FROM Enrolls e WHERE e.Student_ID = p.id
AND Grade = 4.0)

example in the documentation, but the;

DROP TABLE <TABLENAME> IN DICTIONARY WHERE EXISTS (select * from X$file where xf$name = '<TABLENAME>')

will not work as the DROP statement doesnt support this.

I am essentially looking for a work around.

Thanks for the help thats on its way
SHAMmmmm...

 

[Vancouverite]

If you use a stored procedure, you should be able to do this:

DECLARE :TestName char(20);
SELECT XF$Name INTO :TestName FROM X$File WHERE XF$Name='<Tablename>'
IF RTrimTestName) = '<TableName>' THEN
DROP TABLE <TableName>
End If

... rest of create ...