Check programmatically if List is already exists in SharePoint site

While programming with SharePoint Object Model, sometimes we are in situation where we need to check if a list is already exists in given scope especially or we should create a new list. We can check this by creating a list in a try block and if list already exists it will throw exception which will be handled in catch block. However we can check it by other couple of ways.

• Check if lists exists.

string listName = "Tasks"; SPSite site = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent; SPWeb webName = site.RootWeb; bool isListExixts = webName.Lists.TryGetList(listName); if (isListExixts == true)     // List Exists.

• Iterate through collection of lists and match for each list with specified list name. 

string listName = "Tasks"; SPSite site = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent; SPWeb webName = site.RootWeb; SPListCollection listCollection = webName.Lists; foreach (SPList tempList in listCollection) {    if (tempList.Title == listName)       return true; }

• Iterate through list of collection using this code.

string listName = "Tasks"; SPSite site = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent; SPWeb webName = site.RootWeb; if(webName.Lists.Cast<SPList>().Any(list => list.Title.Equals(listName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))) {    return true; }

In both ways, code looks into List collection and if Task list is already exists it returns true.