Dropping tables with MySQLdb

Dropping a table through MySQLdb is very straightforward.

cursor.execute("DROP TABLE %s" %('barge'))

Of course, for the sake of feedback, it is worth sandwiching this in a try...except structure. As with the DROP TABLE statement in MySQL, you can usually just pass this statement with an IF EXISTS conditional and be done with it:

execution = cursor.execute("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS %s" %('barge'))

Note that, as before, the conditional element causes MySQL to always return a 0 value for successful execution. So a test for the value of execution will always test true for 0. If you want an exception if the table does not exist, use the other DROP statement in a try...except statement.