CREATE DATABASE() SQL Commands CREATE DATABASE()NAME
CREATE DATABASE - Creates a new database
SYNOPSIS
CREATE DATABASE name
[ WITH [ LOCATION = 'dbpath' ]
[ TEMPLATE = template ]
[ ENCODING = encoding ] ]
INPUTS
name The name of a database to create.
dbpath An alternate filesystem location in which to store the new data‐
base, specified as a string literal; or DEFAULT to use the
default location.
template
Name of template from which to create the new database, or
DEFAULT to use the default template (template1).
encoding
Multibyte encoding method to use in the new database. Specify a
string literal name (e.g., 'SQL_ASCII'), or an integer encoding
number, or DEFAULT to use the default encoding.
OUTPUTS
CREATE DATABASE
Message returned if the command completes successfully.
ERROR: user 'username' is not allowed to create/drop databases
You must have the special CREATEDB privilege to create data‐
bases. See CREATE USER [create_user(l)].
ERROR: createdb: database "name" already exists
This occurs if a database with the name specified already
exists.
ERROR: database path may not contain single quotes
The database location dbpath cannot contain single quotes. This
is required so that the shell commands that create the database
directory can execute safely.
ERROR: CREATE DATABASE: may not be called in a transaction block
If you have an explicit transaction block in progress you cannot
call CREATE DATABASE. You must finish the transaction first.
ERROR: Unable to create database directory 'path'.
ERROR: Could not initialize database directory.
These are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the
data directory, a full disk, or other file system problems. The
user under which the database server is running must have access
to the location.
DESCRIPTION
CREATE DATABASE creates a new Postgres database. The creator becomes
the owner of the new database.
An alternate location can be specified in order to, for example, store
the database on a different disk. The path must have been prepared
with the initlocation [initlocation(1)] command.
If the path name does not contain a slash, it is interpreted as an
environment variable name, which must be known to the server process.
This way the database administrator can exercise control over locations
in which databases can be created. (A customary choice is, e.g.,
'PGDATA2'.) If the server is compiled with ALLOW_ABSOLUTE_DBPATHS (not
so by default), absolute path names, as identified by a leading slash
(e.g., '/usr/local/pgsql/data'), are allowed as well.
By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard
system database template1. A different template can be specified by
writing TEMPLATE = name. In particular, by writing TEMPLATE = tem‐
plate0, you can create a virgin database containing only the standard
objects predefined by your version of Postgres. This is useful if you
wish to avoid copying any installation-local objects that may have been
added to template1.
The optional encoding parameter allows selection of the database encod‐
ing, if your server was compiled with multibyte encoding support. When
not specified, it defaults to the encoding used by the selected tem‐
plate database.
Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order
illustrated above.
NOTES
CREATE DATABASE is a Postgres language extension.
Use DROP DATABASE [drop_database(l)] to remove a database.
The program createdb [createdb [createdb(1)] is a shell script wrapper
around this command, provided for convenience.
There are security and data integrity issues involved with using alter‐
nate database locations specified with absolute path names, and by
default only an environment variable known to the backend may be speci‐
fied for an alternate location. See the Administrator's Guide for more
information.
Although it is possible to copy a database other than template1 by
specifying its name as the template, this is not (yet) intended as a
general-purpose COPY DATABASE facility. In particular, it is essential
that the source database be idle (no data-altering transactions in
progress) for the duration of the copying operation. CREATE DATABASE
will check that no backend processes (other than itself) are connected
to the source database at the start of the operation, but this does not
guarantee that changes cannot be made while the copy proceeds. There‐
fore, we recommend that databases used as templates be treated as read-
only.
Two useful flags exist in pg_database for each database: datistemplate
and datallowconn. datistemplate may be set to indicate that a database
is intended as a template for CREATE DATABASE. If this flag is set, the
database may be cloned by any user with CREATEDB privileges; if it is
not set, only superusers and the owner of the database may clone it.
If datallowconn is false, then no new connections to that database will
be allowed (but existing sessions are not killed simply by setting the
flag false). The template0 database is normally marked this way to pre‐
vent modification of it.
USAGE
To create a new database:
olly=> create database lusiadas;
To create a new database in an alternate area ~/private_db:
$ mkdir private_db
$ initlocation ~/private_db
Creating Postgres database system directory /home/olly/private_db/base
$ psql olly
Welcome to psql, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help on internal slash commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit
olly=> CREATE DATABASE elsewhere WITH LOCATION = '/home/olly/private_db';
CREATE DATABASE
COMPATIBILITY
SQL92
There is no CREATE DATABASE statement in SQL92. Databases are equiva‐
lent to catalogs whose creation is implementation-defined.
SQL - Language Statements 29 March 2001 CREATE DATABASE()