I am working on an application that will need to create a database in MySql. I have not been able to find any reference on how to check to see if a database name exists before I go creating it. I did find the syntax CREATE IF NOT EXIST db_name but if I am creating the database for the firs time then I also need to create several tables in the database.

What functions can I call to send the command and get a result letting me know if a database exists?