That's like asking "is there a generic way to get related data" in databases. The answer is of course no - the only "generic way" is to have a data layer that hides the implementation details of your particular data source and queries it appropriately.

If you are really supporting and accessing many different types of databases without a Stategy design pattern or similar approach I would be quite surprised.

That being said, the best approach is something like this bit of code:

bool exists;

try
{
    // ANSI SQL way.  Works in PostgreSQL, MSSQL, MySQL.  
    var cmd = new OdbcCommand(
      "select case when exists((select * from information_schema.tables where table_name = '" + tableName + "')) then 1 else 0 end");

    exists = (int)cmd.ExecuteScalar() == 1;
}
catch
{
    try
    {
        // Other RDBMS.  Graceful degradation
        exists = true;
        var cmdOthers = new OdbcCommand("select 1 from " + tableName + " where 1 = 0");
        cmdOthers.ExecuteNonQuery();
    }
    catch
    {
        exists = false;
    }
}

Source: Check if a SQL table exists

That's like asking "is there a generic way to get related data" in databases. The answer is of course no - the only "generic way" is to have a data layer that hides the implementation details of your particular data source and queries it appropriately.

If you are really supporting and accessing many different types of databases without a Stategy design pattern or similar approach I would be quite surprised.

That being said, the best approach is something like this bit of code:

bool exists;

try
{
    // ANSI SQL way.  Works in PostgreSQL, MSSQL, MySQL.  
    var cmd = new OdbcCommand(
      "select case when exists((select * from information_schema.tables where table_name = '" + tableName + "')) then 1 else 0 end");

    exists = (int)cmd.ExecuteScalar() == 1;
}
catch
{
    try
    {
        // Other RDBMS.  Graceful degradation
        exists = true;
        var cmdOthers = new OdbcCommand("select 1 from " + tableName + " where 1 = 0");
        cmdOthers.ExecuteNonQuery();
    }
    catch
    {
        exists = false;
    }
}

Source: Check if a SQL table exists