I am a fairly new user to Firebird, but have used SQL Server and DBISAM for years (in Delphi).

What I want to do is update my customers' tables to the same level as my master development database. What I have done on other databases is something along the lines of

CREATE table if not exists "activefilestorage" ("ID" autoinc, "StorageArea" VARCHAR (30), "NoOfFiles" integer DEFAULT 0, "OfficeID" integer DEFAULT 0);

ALTER TABLE if EXISTS "activefilestorage" ADD COLUMN if not EXISTS "ID" autoinc;

Ok - so I want to create a table if it does not exist. Then I want to add columns if they do not exist. All fairly normal, but it seems to be a real problem in Firebird.

I generate this script in Delphi - I scan my local database, look at every table, and all the columns, indexes, etc, then generate this script. I then send it out to customers, they run it - and their database is updated. Good plan!

I have it all working fairly well - if they have no tables at all it works just fine. But Firebird has a terrible time altering and adding columns, and as far as I can see, does not have any IF EXISTS function.

I cannot simply DROP tables, and recreate them (which would work), as the customers would lose their data.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?