This Ant task adds a column to an Oracle database table if it does not already exist. The ReadWimConfiguration class simply sets the Oracle URL, username, and password. The OracleBootstrap class gets an Oracle DataSource object and provides a method to get a connection. I can post that class if needed. 

package org.wwre.ant.tasks;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException;
import org.apache.tools.ant.Task;
import org.wwre.common.ReadWimConfiguration;
import org.wwre.datastore.oracle.OracleBootstrap;

/**
 * This class adds a column to a database table. The column is only
 * added if it does not already exist.
 *
 */
public class AddDatabaseColumnTask extends Task {

    private String          table  = null;

    private String          column = null;

    private String          format = null;

    /**
     * The method executing the task.
     */
    public void execute() throws BuildException {
        Connection con = null;
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        ResultSet rs = null;

        try {
            if (ReadWimConfiguration.isRead() == false) {
                throw new BuildException("Please call the readWimConfiguration task.");
            }

            if (getTable() == null) {
                throw new BuildException("Please specify the table attribute.");
            }

            if (getColumn() == null) {
                throw new BuildException("Please specify the column attribute.");
            }

            String sql = "SELECT column_name FROM user_tab_columns WHERE table_name = '" + getTable() + "' AND column_name = '" + getColumn() + "'";

            OracleBootstrap.initialize();

            try {
                con = OracleBootstrap.getConnection();
                ps = con.prepareStatement(sql);
                rs = ps.executeQuery();
                if (rs.next() == false) {
                    ps = con.prepareStatement("ALTER TABLE " + getTable() + " ADD (" + getColumn() + " " + this.format + ")");
                    rs = ps.executeQuery();
                }

            } catch (SQLException e) {
                boolean validError = false;

                if (validError == false) {
                    throw new BuildException(toString() + "\n" + e.getMessage());
                }
            } finally {
                // Note: The connection is not closed so that it can be reused!
            }

        } catch (Error e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw new BuildException("Unhandled Error: " + e.getMessage());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw new BuildException("Unhandled Exception: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    /**
     * @return Returns the column.
     */
    private String getColumn() {
        if (this.column == null)
            return null;
        else
            return this.column.trim().toUpperCase();
    }

    /**
     * @param _format The format to set.
     */
    public void setFormat(String _format) {
        this.format = _format;
    }

    /**
     * @return Returns the table.
     */
    private String getTable() {
        if (this.table == null)
            return null;
        else
            return this.table.trim().toUpperCase();
    }

    /**
     * @param _table The table to set.
     */
    public void setTable(String _table) {
        this.table = _table;
    }
}