SQL: Does the object exist?

If you need to check if an object exists in the database, rather than querying an obscure system table, you can use the OBJECT_ID function.

If you want to verify that the table FooBar exists in the YadiYada database, simply write the following IF statement:

IF OBJECT_ID('YadiYada..FooBar') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
--FooBar exists so you can use it here
--...
END