使用bash:

if [ "`mysql -u'USER' -p'PASSWORD' -se'USE $DATABASE_NAME;' 2>&1`" == "" ]; then
    echo $DATABASE_NAME exist
else
    echo $DATABASE_NAME doesn't exist
fi

Rails代码:

ruby-1.9.2-p290 :099 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("USE INFORMATION_SCHEMA")

ruby-1.9.2-p290 :099 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM         INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'entos_development'").to_a
SQL (0.2ms) SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME =               'entos_development'
=> [["entos_development"]] 
ruby-1.9.2-p290 :100 > ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM              INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'entos_development1'").to_a
SQL (0.3ms) SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME =            'entos_development1'
=> []

=> entos_development存在，entos_development1不存在

SELECT IF('database_name' IN(SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA), 1, 0) AS found;

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
 WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'DBName'

如果你只是需要知道一个db是否存在，这样当你尝试创建它时就不会得到一个错误，只需使用(从这里):

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS DBName;

IF EXISTS (SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = N'YourDatabaseName')
BEGIN    
    -- Database exists, so do your stuff here.
END

如果你正在使用MSSQL而不是MySQL，可以从类似的线程中看到这个答案。

检查数据库是否存在的一个简单方法是:

SHOW DATABASES LIKE 'dbname';

如果名称为'dbname'的数据库不存在，则得到一个空集。如果它存在，就得到一行。