add column to mysql table if it does not exist

Here is a working solution (just tried out with MySQL 5.0 on Solaris):

DELIMITER $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS upgrade_database_1_0_to_2_0 $$
CREATE PROCEDURE upgrade_database_1_0_to_2_0()
BEGIN

-- rename a table safely
IF NOT EXISTS( (SELECT * FROM information_schema.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA=DATABASE()
        AND TABLE_NAME='my_old_table_name') ) THEN
    RENAME TABLE 
        my_old_table_name TO my_new_table_name,
END IF;

-- add a column safely
IF NOT EXISTS( (SELECT * FROM information_schema.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA=DATABASE()
        AND COLUMN_NAME='my_additional_column' AND TABLE_NAME='my_table_name') ) THEN
    ALTER TABLE my_table_name ADD my_additional_column varchar(2048) NOT NULL DEFAULT '';
END IF;

END $$

CALL upgrade_database_1_0_to_2_0() $$

DELIMITER ;

On a first glance it probably looks more complicated than it should, but we have to deal with following problems here:

• IF statements only work in stored procedures, not when run directly, e.g. in mysql client
• more elegant and concise SHOW COLUMNS does not work in stored procedure so have to use INFORMATION_SCHEMA
• the syntax for delimiting statements is strange in MySQL, so you have to redefine the delimiter to be able to create stored procedures. Do not forget to switch the delimiter back!
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA is global for all databases, do not forget to filter on TABLE_SCHEMA=DATABASE(). DATABASE() returns the name of the currently selected database.

If you are on MariaDB, no need to use stored procedures. Just use, for example:

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS column_name tinyint(1) DEFAULT 0;

See here