db["my_table"].drop(ignore=True) parameter, plus sqlite-utils drop-table --ignore and drop-view --ignore

[mhalle]

When I'm generating a derived table in python, I often drop the table and create it from scratch. However, the first time I generate the table, it doesn't exist, so the drop raises an exception. That means more boilerplate.

I was going to submit a pull request that adds an "if_exists" option to the drop method of tables and views.

However, for a utility like sqlite_utils, perhaps the "IF EXISTS" SQL semantics is what you want most of the time, and thus should be the default.

What do you think?

[simonw]

Other methods (db.create_view() for example) have ignore=True to mean "don't throw an error if this causes a problem", so I'm good with adding that to .drop_view().

I don't like using it as the default partly because that would be a very minor breaking API change, but mainly because I don't want to hide mistakes people make - e.g. if you mistype the name of the table you are trying to drop.

[simonw]

So:

    db["my_table"].drop(ignore=True)

[simonw]

sqlite-utils create-view currently has a --ignore option, so adding that to sqlite-utils drop-view and sqlite-utils drop-table makes sense as well.