CREATE DATABASE(7) PostgreSQL 10.1 Documentation CREATE DATABASE(7)NAMECREATE_DATABASE - create a new database
SYNOPSIS
CREATE DATABASE name
[ [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=] user_name ]
[ TEMPLATE [=] template ]
[ ENCODING [=] encoding ]
[ LC_COLLATE [=] lc_collate ]
[ LC_CTYPE [=] lc_ctype ]
[ TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name ]
[ ALLOW_CONNECTIONS [=] allowconn ]
[ CONNECTION LIMIT [=] connlimit ]
[ IS_TEMPLATE [=] istemplate ] ]
DESCRIPTION
CREATE DATABASE creates a new PostgreSQL database.
To create a database, you must be a superuser or have the special
CREATEDB privilege. See CREATE USER (CREATE_USER(7)).
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 might have been added
to template1.
PARAMETERS
name
The name of a database to create.
user_name
The role name of the user who will own the new database, or DEFAULT
to use the default (namely, the user executing the command). To
create a database owned by another role, you must be a direct or
indirect member of that role, or be a superuser.
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 (namely, the encoding of the
template database). The character sets supported by the PostgreSQL
server are described in Section 23.3.1. See below for additional
restrictions.
lc_collate
Collation order (LC_COLLATE) to use in the new database. This
affects the sort order applied to strings, e.g. in queries with
ORDER BY, as well as the order used in indexes on text columns. The
default is to use the collation order of the template database. See
below for additional restrictions.
lc_ctype
Character classification (LC_CTYPE) to use in the new database.
This affects the categorization of characters, e.g. lower, upper
and digit. The default is to use the character classification of
the template database. See below for additional restrictions.
tablespace_name
The name of the tablespace that will be associated with the new
database, or DEFAULT to use the template database's tablespace.
This tablespace will be the default tablespace used for objects
created in this database. See CREATE TABLESPACE
(CREATE_TABLESPACE(7)) for more information.
allowconn
If false then no one can connect to this database. The default is
true, allowing connections (except as restricted by other
mechanisms, such as GRANT/REVOKE CONNECT).
connlimit
How many concurrent connections can be made to this database. -1
(the default) means no limit.
istemplate
If true, then this database can be cloned by any user with CREATEDB
privileges; if false (the default), then only superusers or the
owner of the database can clone it.
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 DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7)) to remove a database.
The program createdb(1) is a wrapper program around this command,
provided for convenience.
Database-level configuration parameters (set via ALTER DATABASE
(ALTER_DATABASE(7))) are not copied from the template database.
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. The principal limitation is
that no other sessions can be connected to the template database while
it is being copied. CREATE DATABASE will fail if any other connection
exists when it starts; otherwise, new connections to the template
database are locked out until CREATE DATABASE completes. See
Section 22.3 for more information.
The character set encoding specified for the new database must be
compatible with the chosen locale settings (LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE).
If the locale is C (or equivalently POSIX), then all encodings are
allowed, but for other locale settings there is only one encoding that
will work properly. (On Windows, however, UTF-8 encoding can be used
with any locale.) CREATE DATABASE will allow superusers to specify
SQL_ASCII encoding regardless of the locale settings, but this choice
is deprecated and may result in misbehavior of character-string
functions if data that is not encoding-compatible with the locale is
stored in the database.
The encoding and locale settings must match those of the template
database, except when template0 is used as template. This is because
other databases might contain data that does not match the specified
encoding, or might contain indexes whose sort ordering is affected by
LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE. Copying such data would result in a database
that is corrupt according to the new settings. template0, however, is
known to not contain any data or indexes that would be affected.
The CONNECTION LIMIT option is only enforced approximately; if two new
sessions start at about the same time when just one connection “slot”
remains for the database, it is possible that both will fail. Also, the
limit is not enforced against superusers or background worker
processes.
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 with a different locale:
CREATE DATABASE music
LC_COLLATE 'sv_SE.utf8' LC_CTYPE 'sv_SE.utf8'
TEMPLATE template0;
In this example, the TEMPLATE template0 clause is required if the
specified locale is different from the one in template1. (If it is not,
then specifying the locale explicitly is redundant.)
To create a database music2 with a different locale and a different
character set encoding:
CREATE DATABASE music2
LC_COLLATE 'sv_SE.iso885915' LC_CTYPE 'sv_SE.iso885915'
ENCODING LATIN9
TEMPLATE template0;
The specified locale and encoding settings must match, or an error will
be reported.
Note that locale names are specific to the operating system, so that
the above commands might not work in the same way everywhere.
COMPATIBILITY
There is no CREATE DATABASE statement in the SQL standard. Databases
are equivalent to catalogs, whose creation is implementation-defined.
SEE ALSO
ALTER DATABASE (ALTER_DATABASE(7)), DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7))
PostgreSQL 10.1 2017 CREATE DATABASE(7)
