Create Token Account only if not Initialized yet in program (Native Rust)

Question

Doing this in Typescript is pretty straightforward by making an RPC call or getOrCreateAssociatedAccount, but I am wondering if there is a way to do this program side as well without using Anchor.

For example, say I want my program to mint some tokens to a user - but I'll also want the program to create the token account if it does not already exist before minting. Does this check have to be handled on the client side or can I implement the program side as well?

Answer 1

Assuming you need the target associated token account for something in your program already - like to transfer to it - you can just conditionally create it if it doesn't exist.

The logic looks like this, but note you'd want to coordinate who signs/pays for this account creation, and it's not usually advisable to have unpredictable rent-paying in a program's instruction.

if to_associated_token_account.lamports() == 0 {
    msg!("Creating associated token account for recipient...");
    invoke(
        &associated_token_account_instruction::create_associated_token_account(
            payer.key,
            recipient.key,
            mint_account.key,
            token_program.key,
        ),
        &[
            mint_account.clone(),
            to_associated_token_account.clone(),
            recipient.clone(),
            payer.clone(),
            system_program.clone(),
            token_program.clone(),
            associated_token_program.clone(),
        ],
    )?;
} else {
    msg!("Associated token account exists.");
}