CREATE DATABASE
SQL - Language Statements
CREATE DATABASE
create a new database
CREATE DATABASE
CREATE DATABASE name
[ [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=] dbowner ]
[ TEMPLATE [=] template ]
[ ENCODING [=] encoding ]
[ TABLESPACE [=] tablespace ] ]
Description
CREATE DATABASE creates a new
PostgreSQL database.
To create a database, you must be a superuser or have the special
CREATEDB> privilege.
See .
Normally, the creator becomes the owner of the new database.
Superusers can create databases owned by other users using the
OWNER> clause. They can even create databases owned by
users with no special privileges. Non-superusers with CREATEDB>
privilege can only create databases owned by themselves.
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 template0>, you can create a virgin
database containing only the standard objects predefined by your
version of PostgreSQL. This is useful
if you wish to avoid copying
any installation-local objects that may have been added to
template1>.
Parameters
name
The name of a database to create.
dbowner
The name of the database user who will own the new database,
or DEFAULT to use the default (namely, the
user executing the command).
template
The name of the template from which to create the new database,
or DEFAULT to use the default template
(template1).
encoding
Character set encoding to use in the new database. Specify
a string constant (e.g., 'SQL_ASCII'),
or an integer encoding number, or DEFAULT
to use the default encoding. The character sets supported by the
PostgreSQL server are described in
.
tablespace
Specifies the default tablespace for the new database.
If not specified, the same tablespace that is default for
the template database is used. See
for more information.
Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order
illustrated above.
Notes
CREATE DATABASE> cannot be executed inside a transaction
block.
Errors along the line of could not initialize database directory>
are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data
directory, a full disk, or other file system problems.
Use to remove a database.
The program is a
wrapper program around this command, provided for convenience.
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.
We recommend that databases used as templates be treated as read-only.
See for more information.
Examples
To create a new database:
CREATE DATABASE lusiadas;
To create a database sales> owned by user salesapp>>
with a default tablespace of salesspace>:
CREATE DATABASE sales OWNER salesapp TABLESPACE salesspace;
To create a database music> which supports the ISO-8859-1
character set:
CREATE DATABASE music ENCODING 'LATIN1';
Compatibility
There is no CREATE DATABASE statement in the SQL
standard. Databases are equivalent to catalogs, whose creation is
implementation-defined.