SQL CREATE DATABASE Statement

The CREATE DATABASE statement is used to create a new SQL database.

Syntax

The basic syntax for the CREATE DATABASE statement is as follows:

CREATE DATABASE database_name;

Note: Be sure that the database name is unique within the database system.

Create DATABASE - Example

The following SQL statement will create a database called "demo_db":

CREATE DATABASE demo_db;

After creating a database, we ask SQL to use this that database using the following command:

USE demo_db

After the execution, SQL will set the "demo_db" database as a target for all future commands.

Note: In unit, the database and table names are case-sensitive, so we must always refer to the database name with a lower case. In our example, it will be "demo_db".

Create Database in MariaDB / MySQL steps

Here we will create a database in MySQL using the command line.

Step 1: Invoking the command-line tool

In MySQL, to invoke the command line, we have to log in to the MySQL server first.

The following command will log in as a root user.

shell> mysql -u root -p

After the execution, you will be prompted for the password. Enter the password for the root user, if it is correct, the mysql> prompt will appear, which will allow us to execute our SQL queries.

Step 2: Creating a Database

Now, we will create a new database called "demo_db" by executing the following command:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE demo_db

If the database created successfully, you would see the following output:

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

To avoid the error when you try the create a database that already exists. You can use the optional clause IF NOT EXISTS as follows:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS demo_db

Step 3: Selecting the Database

At this stage, the database "demo_db" is created and ready for use.

Before using the database, you must select the database by running the following command:

mysql> USE demo_db;

To show all the existing database in MySQL, you can execute the following command:

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;