I have created a stored procedure that will drop a table if it exists in a database. When running the stored procedure with EXEC, I am getting the following error: 

> 
> Msg 203, Level 16, State 2, Procedure
>  sp\_DropIfExists, Line 13 The name 'IF
>  EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.objects WHERE
>  OBJECT\_ID = OBJECT\_ID(N'table\_name')
>  AND type = (N'U')) DROP TABLE
>  [table\_name]' is not a valid
>  identifier.
> 
> 
> 

However if i copy and paste the T-SQL that is generated into management studio, it seems to be running fine. Can someone explain why this is not valid? The fix would be nice, but I am really after the Why primarily, The How would be nice to though! Thanks in advance. 

```
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_DropIfExists](@tableName VARCHAR(255)) 
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(MAX);
    SET @SQL = 'IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.objects WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N''' + @tableName + ''') AND type = (N''U'')) DROP TABLE [' + @tableName + ']'
    PRINT @SQL;
    EXEC @SQL;
END

```